TERMS STARTING WITH
Who has out of his mist of greatness shone
Whole Brain Emulation - the hypothetical process of copying mental content (including long-term memory and "self") from a particular brain substrate and copying it to another computational device, such as a digital, analog, quantum-based or software based artificial neural network.
Whole number – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.
Wholesale banks - Banks specialising in large scale deposits, and loans and dealing mainly with companies.
Wholesale deposits - Large-scale deposits and loans made by and to firms at negotiated interest rates.
Wholesaler - A wholesaler buys in bulk (large quantities) from the manufacturer and sells on smaller quantities either to retailers or, occasionally, direct to customers
Wholesale – Refers to the selling of items to retailers usually in large quantities which are then broken up into smaller quantities to be on sold to consumers.
Whole: The term "whole" has been used frequently in attempts to describe or to explain certain features of biological, psychological, or sociological (but sometimes also of physical and chemical) phenomena which were said to be inaccessible to a "merely mechanistic" or "summative" analysis. In fact, most applications of the concept of whole explicitly resort to a principle which asserts that a whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Wholly owned subsidiary – This is used to refer to the situation where the parent company owns 100% of the stock of the subsidiary company.
Whopper {WarGames}
Who seats his thought as the arbiter of truth,
who accompanied Akteriel. In a word, the over¬
whoa ::: interj. --> Stop; stand; hold. See Ho, 2.
who, along with Zephon, is dispatched by Gabriel
who also protects commerce, bankers, etc.
who announced the death of Moses with the
who are “glorious and benevolent angels” in¬
who are, it is said, the 7 or 10 Vedic spirits from
who are pure spirits; and (3) man, who is impure spirit.
who art the life of the Universe, and who
who, as is said of Pistis Sophia, procreated the
who “attended the servants of God and promoted
whobub ::: n. --> Hubbub.
who clothes with the garment of righteous¬
who controlled thunderbolts. Their names were
who detects thieves and can reveal hidden treasure.
who disapproved were punished— Rf. Ginzberg,
who does the provoking) may be resolved if
who drove Adam and Eve out of Eden. This is
who enters her “through the ear,” and who
whoever ::: pron. --> Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
who exercises dominion over the earth. In Enoch
who first personified the term to stand for an
who followed him. In Psalms 91:13, “the saints
who give love or kindoess for its own sake without expecting a return who escape from this experience.
who governs the Moon. [Rf. The Secret Grimoire
who governs the planet Saturn; 2. Bethor, who
who had attempted to overturn the bier of the
who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures—
who helps those desiring offspring. Mebahiah is
who includes Asrafil in his Dictionnaire Infernal
who instructed Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha in the
who intercedes “for the people of Israel, so that
who interpreted Genesis 6 as representing the
who interview the dead in their graves (along with Munkar); disavowal, rejection; loathsome, disgusting.
who is able to circumvent the designs of Kumeatel,
who is, according to rabbinic tradition, suspended
who is a feminine manifestation; 4. Zeir Anpin
who is also the angel of silence and the angel of
who is an enthroned angel of the holy Jehovah.”
whois ::: An Internet directory service for looking up names of people on a remote server. Many servers respond to TCP queries on port 43, in a manner roughly analogous to directory service via the finger protocol or accept queries by electronic mail for directory information. On Unix the client command is whois -h server_name person_name on a separate line. For a list of whois servers, FTP/Gopher: sipb.mit.edu. Or whois -h sipb.mit.edu whois-servers As the above command demonstrates, whois can find information about things other than users, e.g. domains, networks and hosts.See also finger, X.500, white pages.
whois An {Internet} directory service for looking up names of people on a remote server. Many servers respond to {TCP} queries on {port} 43, in a manner roughly analogous to the {DDN} {NIC} whois service described in {RFC} 954. Other sites provide this directory service via the {finger} {protocol} or accept queries by {electronic mail} for directory information. On {Unix} the client command is whois -h server_name person_name You can also type "telnet server_name 43" and then type the person's name on a separate line. For a list of whois servers, FTP/Gopher: sipb.mit.edu. Or whois -h sipb.mit.edu whois-servers As the above command demonstrates, whois can find information about things other than users, e.g. domains, networks and hosts. See also {finger}, {X.500}, {white pages}.
who is invoked in ritual rites.
who is invoked on Saturday. [Rf. Barrett, The
who is reputed to have given Adam The Book
WHO IS THE OBJECT OF OUR DESIRE
who is the spirit of health and vegetation, as well
whole ::: a. --> Containing the total amount, number, etc.; comprising all the parts; free from deficiency; all; total; entire; as, the whole earth; the whole solar system; the whole army; the whole nation.
Complete; entire; not defective or imperfect; not broken or fractured; unimpaired; uninjured; integral; as, a whole orange; the egg is whole; the vessel is whole.
Possessing, or being in a state of, heath and soundness; healthy; sound; well.
whole class of angels, together with their spiritual
who led the angels astray with her beauty.” The
who led the children of Israel through the wilder¬
whole-hoofed ::: a. --> Having an undivided hoof, as the horse.
whole-length ::: a. --> Representing the whole figure; -- said of a picture or statue. ::: n. --> A portrait or statue representing the whole figure.
wholeness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being whole, entire, or sound; entireness; totality; completeness.
whole number {integer}
wholesale ::: n. --> Sale of goods by the piece or large quantity, as distinguished from retail. ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or engaged in, trade by the piece or large quantity; selling to retailers or jobbers rather than to consumers; as, a wholesale merchant; the wholesale price.
wholesome ::: superl. --> Tending to promote health; favoring health; salubrious; salutary.
Contributing to the health of the mind; favorable to morals, religion, or prosperity; conducive to good; salutary; sound; as, wholesome advice; wholesome doctrines; wholesome truths; wholesome laws.
Sound; healthy.
whole-souled ::: a. --> Thoroughly imbued with a right spirit; noble-minded; devoted.
wholly ::: adv. --> In a whole or complete manner; entirely; completely; perfectly.
To the exclusion of other things; totally; fully.
wholly ::: completely; entirely.
whom Abraham “entertained unawares” at
whom, according to the Bhagavad Gita, was con¬
who make known secret arts to mankind, as
whom all mankind is descended. They are also to
who may be invoked in ritual magic rites. [Rf.
who may be Raphael in another guise. [Rf Mont¬
whom David saw “standing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his
whom God set over those who rise.” In Revelation 9, Abaddon/Apollyon is the “angel of the
whom he titled his Maggid Mesharim, a book which
whom, however, he seems to have much in
who “ministers to the son of man,” according to
whom it is claimed all mankind is descended. They
whom Milka d Anhura, the Giver of Life, sent
whom ::: pron. --> The objective case of who. See Who.
whom services were paid. [Rf. The Dahistan, p.
whomsoever ::: pron. --> The objective of whosoever. See Whosoever.
whom the world was created,” the other 2 being
who, nevertheless, may be invoked in black-magic
who ::: object. --> Originally, an interrogative pronoun, later, a relative pronoun also; -- used always substantively, and either as singular or plural. See the Note under What, pron., 1. As interrogative pronouns, who and whom ask the question: What or which person or persons? Who and whom, as relative pronouns (in the sense of that), are properly used of persons (corresponding to which, as applied to things), but are sometimes, less properly and now rarely, used of animals, plants, etc. Who and whom, as compound relatives, are also used especially of
whoobub ::: n. --> Hubbub.
who occupies the throne next to the divine
whooped ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Whoop
whooper ::: n. --> One who, or that which, whooops.
whooping ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Whoop ::: --> a. & n. from Whoop, v. t.
whoop ::: n. --> The hoopoe.
A shout of pursuit or of war; a very of eagerness, enthusiasm, enjoyment, vengeance, terror, or the like; an halloo; a hoot, or cry, as of an owl.
A loud, shrill, prolonged sound or sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough. ::: v. i.
whoot ::: v. i. --> To hoot.
who participates in a dialogue with Gabriel,
who possessed the body of Sister Seraphica of
whopper ::: n. --> Something uncommonly large of the kind; something astonishing; -- applied especially to a bold lie.
One who, or that which, whops.
Same as Whapper.
whopping ::: a. --> Very large; monstrous; astonishing; as, a whapping story.
who “presides over the contretemps of mankind.”
whop ::: v. i. --> To throw one&
whored ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Whore
whoredom ::: n. --> The practice of unlawful intercourse with the other sex; fornication; lewdness.
The sin of worshiping idols; idolatry.
whoredom. The 2 together, united, are known as
who refused to bow down before Adam (in the
who remained uncorrupted was the tutelary or
whoremasterly ::: a. --> Having the character of a whoremaster; lecherous; libidinous.
whoremonger ::: n. --> A whoremaster; a lecher; a man who frequents the society of whores.
whore ::: n. --> A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot.
To have unlawful sexual intercourse; to practice lewdness.
To worship false and impure gods. ::: v. t.
whoreson ::: n. --> A bastard; colloquially, a low, scurvy fellow; -- used generally in contempt, or in coarse humor. Also used adjectively.
whoring ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Whore
whorish ::: a. --> Resembling a whore in character or conduct; addicted to unlawful pleasures; incontinent; lewd; unchaste.
whorled ::: a. --> Furnished with whorls; arranged in the form of a whorl or whorls; verticillate; as, whorled leaves.
whorler ::: n. --> A potter&
whorl ::: n. & v. --> A circle of two or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
The fly of a spindle.
whorls ::: forms that coils or spiral; curls or swirls.
whortleberry ::: n. --> In England, the fruit of Vaccinium Myrtillus; also, the plant itself. See Bilberry, 1.
The fruit of several shrubby plants of the genus Gaylussacia; also, any one of these plants. See Huckleberry.
whortle ::: n. --> The whortleberry, or bilberry.
whort ::: n. --> The whortleberry, or bilberry. See Whortleberry (a).
who rules the element of water. In Mandaean lore,
whose original name was Biqa, meaning “good
whose ::: pron. --> The possessive case of who or which. See Who, and Which.
whosesoever ::: pron. --> The possessive of whosoever. See Whosoever.
whose solutions are the Bessel functions.
whose subordinates are Gabriel and Sammael. In
whose wife, Eisheth Zenunim, is the woman of
who shackles the god Ialdabaoth to a sphere of
who sin by idolatry, murder, and incest. The other
whosoever ::: pron. --> Whatsoever person; any person whatever that; whoever.
whoso ::: pron. --> Whosoever.
who stand around the throne of God and attend
who stands at the gate of life and prays for souls.
who stands at the windows of Heaven as mediator
who stretched out his arms embracing the flame
whot ::: a. --> Hot.
who taught Abraham Hebrew, “the language of
who taught the course of the moon. [Rf Charles,
who “taught the signs of the sun.” According to
who teaches “a variety of demonic practices, in¬
who transcribed the 204 (or 94) books dictated by
who “watches over thunder and terror.” In The
who, when his name is pronounced, is able to
who, when invoked, shows himself in the form of
who will sound the trumpet at the Resurrection.
who, with Araziel, governs the sign of the Bull
who, with Brahma and Mahish, sprang into
who wrestled with Jacob; also the angel (usually
who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel, although
TERMS ANYWHERE
"1. ‘The Golden Embryo" in Hindu cosmology; the name given to the golden-hued Egg which floated on the surface of the primeval waters. In time the egg divided into two parts, the golden top half of the shell becoming the heavens and the silver lower half the earth. 2. ‘God imaginative and therefore creative"; the ‘Spirit in the middle or Dream State"; Lord of Dream-Life who takes from the ocean of subconsciously intelligent spiritual being the conscious psychic forces which He materializes or encases in various forms of gross living matter. (Enc. Br.; A)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.
"A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; — this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine
A being of the lower vital planes who has assumed the discarded vital sheath of a departed human being or a fragment of his vital personality and appears and acts in the form and perhaps with the surface thoughts and memories of that person.
A being of the lower vital plane who by the medium of a living human being or by some other means or agency is able to materialise itself sufficiently so as to appear and act in a visible form or speak with an audible voice or, without so appearing, to move about material things, e.g., furniture or to materialise objects or to shift them from place to place. This accounts for what are called poltergeists , phenomena of stone-throwing, tree-inhabiting Bhutas, and other well-known phenomena.
accountant ::: one who inspects and audits accounts.
"A change into a higher consciousness or state of being is not only the whole aim and process of religion, of all higher askesis, of Yoga, but it is also the very trend of our life itself, the secret purpose found in the sum of its labour.” *The Life Divine
"A cosmos or universe is always a harmony, otherwise it could not exist, it would fly to pieces. But as there are musical harmonies which are built out of discords partly or even predominantly, so this universe (the material) is disharmonious in its separate elements — the individual elements are at discord with each other to a large extent; it is only owing to the sustaining Divine Will behind that the whole is still a harmony to those who look at it with the cosmic vision. But it is a harmony in evolution in progress — that is, all is combined to strive towards a goal which is not yet reached, and the object of our yoga is to hasten the arrival to this goal. When it is reached, there will be a harmony of harmonies substituted for the present harmony built up on discords. This is the explanation of the present appearance of things.” Letters on Yoga
addict ::: one who is attached by one"s own inclination to an activity, habit or substance; devoted, given up to.
adept ::: one who is completely versed (in something); thoroughly proficient; well-skilled; expert. adepts.
adj. 1. Having dropped or come down from a higher place, from an upright position, or from a higher level, degree, amount, quality, value, number. 2. Having sunk in reputation or honour; degraded. 3. Overthrown, destroyed or conquered, esp. of those who have died in battle. (Also, pp. of fall**.**)
adoration ::: 1. The act of paying honour, as to a divine being; worship. 2. Reverent homage. 3. Fervent and devoted love. **adoration"s.*Sri Aurobindo: "Especially in love for the Divine or for one whom one feels to be divine, the Bhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved, a sense of something of immense greatness, beauty or value and for himself a strong impression of his own comparative unworthiness and a passionate desire to grow into likeness with that which one adores.” Letters on Yoga*
adored ::: the One who is worshipped, (referring here to Krishna).
adorer ::: the One who worships, (referring here to Radha).
adventurer ::: one who seeks adventures, or who engages in daring enterprises. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) adventurers, Adventurers.
aeons ::: ages of the universe, immeasurable periods of time; the whole duration of the world, or of the universe; eternity. aeons", aeoned, million-aeoned, (employed as an adj. by Sri Aurobindo), aeon-rings.
aesthete ::: a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.
agent ::: n. **1. One who does the actual work of anything, as distinguished from the instigator or employer; hence, one who acts for another, a deputy, steward, factor, substitute, representative, or emissary. adj. 2. That which acts or exerts power. agents.**
all- ::: prefix: Wholly, altogether, infinitely. Since 1600, the number of these [combinations] has been enormously extended, all-** having become a possible prefix, in poetry at least, to almost any adjective of quality. all-affirming, All-Beautiful, All-Beautiful"s, All-Bliss, All-Blissful, All-causing, all-concealing, all-conquering, All-Conscient, All-Conscious, all-containing, All-containing, all-creating, all-defeating, All-Delight, all-discovering, all-embracing, all-fulfilling, all-harbouring, all-inhabiting, all-knowing, All-knowing, All-Knowledge, all-levelling, All-Life, All-love, All-Love, all-negating, all-powerful, all-revealing, All-ruler, all-ruling, all-seeing, All-seeing, all-seeking, all-shaping, all-supporting, all-sustaining, all-swallowing, All-Truth, All-vision, All-Wisdom, all-wise, All-Wise, all-witnessing, All-Wonderful, All-Wonderful"s.**
"All the limitlessly wise immortals desired and found the Child within us who is everywhere around us.” The Secret of the Veda
"All true law is the right motion and process of a reality, an energy or power of being in action fulfilling its own inherent movement self-implied in its own truth of existence. This law may be inconscient and its working appear to be mechanical, — that is the character or, at least, the appearance of law in material Nature: it may be a conscious energy, freely determined in its action by the consciousness in the being aware of its own imperative of truth, aware of its plastic possibilities of self-expression of that truth, aware, always in the whole and at each moment in the detail, of the actualities it has to realise; this is the figure of the law of the Spirit.” *The Life Divine
a man who has been freed from slavery.
amateur ::: a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.
"An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.” Letters on Yoga
anchorites ::: those who have retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermits, recluses.
And perfect sincerity comes when at the centre of the being there is the consciousness of the divine Presence, the consciousness of the divine Will, and when the entire being, like a luminous, clear, transparent whole, expresses this in all its details. This indeed is true sincerity. CWMCE Questions and Answers Vol. 6*
"A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound, but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
animal ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifest God?” *The Life Divine
::: "An incarnation is something more, something special and individual to the individual being. It is the substitution of the Person of a divine being for the human person and an infiltration of it into all the movements so that there is a dynamic personal change in all of them and in the whole nature; not merely a change of the character of the consciousness or general surrender into its hands, but a subtle intimate personal change. Even when there is an incarnation from the birth, the human elements have to be taken up, but when there is a descent, there is a total conscious substitution.” Letters on Yoga
announcers ::: those who present, give notice and/or tell news.
antagonist ::: one who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent, adversary. antagonists.
a person of authority and power who subjects others to undue pressures; a tyrant.
a person who is practised in or who studies geometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with the deduction of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and figures in space from their defining conditions by means of certain assumed properties of space. World-Geometer"s.
a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives; one who pretends to be what he is not. (Sri Aurobindo also uses the term as an adjective.) hypocrite"s.
a person whose back is humped in a convex position because of abnormal spinal curvature.
a person whose office it is to perform religious rites, and esp. to make sacrificial offerings. priests, priest-wind"s.
appellants ::: those who appeal to a higher tribunal; entreat.
apprentice ::: a learner; novice; tyro; one who is learning the rudiments; a trainee. apprenticeship.
architect ::: the deviser, maker, or creator of anything; one who builds up something, as, men are the architects of their own fortunes. Architect, architects.
a religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foresees and foretells the future. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) augured.
"A Rishi is one who sees or discovers an inner truth and puts it into self-effective language — the mantra.” The Future Poetry
aristocracy ::: the class to which a ruling body belongs, a patrician order; the collective body of those who form a privileged class; also used fig. of those who are superior.
artificer ::: 1. One who is skilful or clever in devising ways of making things; inventor. 2. A skilful or artistic worker; craftsperson. artificers.
artist ::: 1. One who practises the creative arts; one who seeks to express the beautiful in visible form. 2. A follower of a manual art; an artificer, mechanic, craftsman, artisan. artists. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adj.)
ascetic ::: one who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals, whether by seclusion or by abstinence from creature comforts, and practices extreme self-denial, rigorous self-discipline or self-mortification. ascetic"s, ascetics.
::: "As for prophecy, I have never met or known of a prophet, however reputed, who was infallible. Some of their predictions come true to the letter, others do not, — they half-fulfil or misfire entirely. It does not follow that the power of prophecy is unreal or the accurate predictions can be all explained by probability, chance, coincidence. The nature and number of those that cannot is too great. The variability of fulfilment may be explained either by an imperfect power in the prophet sometimes active, sometimes failing or by the fact that things are predictable in part only, they are determined in part only or else by different factors or lines of power, different series of potentials and actuals. So long as one is in touch with one line, one predicts accurately, otherwise not — or if the lines of power change, one"s prophecy also goes off the rails. All the same, one may say, there must be, if things are predictable at all, some power or plane through which or on which all is foreseeable; if there is a divine Omniscience and Omnipotence, it must be so. Even then what is foreseen has to be worked out, actually is worked out by a play of forces, — spiritual, mental, vital and physical forces — and in that plane of forces there is no absolute rigidity discoverable. Personal will or endeavour is one of those forces.” Letters on Yoga
"As for Vishnu being the creator, all the three gods are often spoken of as creating the universe — even Shiva who is by tradition the Destroyer.” Letters on Yoga
aspirant ::: n. **1. One who seeks with eagerness and steady purpose. adj. 2. Aspiring, striving for a higher position; mounting up, ascending. aspirants.**
"A third step is to find out that there is something in him other than his instrumental mind, life and body, not only an immortal ever-developing individual soul that supports his nature but an eternal immutable self and spirit, and to learn what are the categories of his spiritual being, until he discovers that all in him is an expression of the spirit and distinguishes the link between his lower and his higher existence; thus he sets out to remove his constitutional self-ignorance. Discovering self and spirit he discovers God; he finds out that there is a Self beyond the temporal: he comes to the vision of that Self in the cosmic consciousness as the divine Reality behind Nature and this world of beings; his mind opens to the thought or the sense of the Absolute of whom self and the individual and the cosmos are so many faces; the cosmic, the egoistic, the original ignorance begin to lose the rigidness of their hold upon him.” The Life Divine
athlete ::: Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj. in the sense of athletic: Of the nature of, or befitting, one who is physically active, powerful, muscular, robust, agile.
"A thought is an arrow shot at the truth; it can hit a point, but not cover the whole target. But the archer is too well satisfied with his success to ask anything farther.” Essays Divine and Human
::: "A transcendent Bliss, unimaginable and inexpressible by the mind and speech, is the nature of the Ineffable. That broods immanent and secret in the whole universe and in everything in the universe. Its presence is described as a secret ether of the bliss of being, of which the Scripture says that, if this were not, none could for a moment breathe or live. And this spiritual bliss is here also in our hearts.” The Synthesis of Yoga
At times he calls himself the ‘Lord of Nations." It is he who sets all wars in motion and only by thwarting his plans could the last war be won . . . This one does not want to be converted, not at all. He wants neither the physical transformation not the supramental world, for that would spell his end. The Mother"s talk of 26 March 1959.
author ::: 1. An originator or creator, one who originates or gives existence to anything. 2. He who gives rise to or causes an action, event, circumstance, state, or condition of things. 3. The composer or writer of a treatise, play, poem, book, etc. authors.
automaton ::: one whose actions are purely involuntary or mechanical; a robot.
bards ::: an ancient Celtic order of minstrel poets who composed and recited verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes. 2. Poets, especially lyric poets.
bearer ::: one who carries, supports, holds up or brings. torch-bearer, torch-bearers.
bed-fellows ::: those who are closely associated or allied with one another.
being ::: 1. The state or quality of having existence. 2. The totality of all things that exist. 3. One"s basic or essential nature; self. 4. All the qualities constituting one that exists; the essence. 5. A person; human being. 6. The Divine, the Supreme; God. Being, being"s, Being"s, beings, Beings, beings", earth-being"s, earth-beings, fragment-being, non-being, non-being"s, Non-Being, Non-Being"s, world-being"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence.” *The Life Divine :::
"The Absolute manifests itself in two terms, a Being and a Becoming. The Being is the fundamental reality; the Becoming is an effectual reality: it is a dynamic power and result, a creative energy and working out of the Being, a constantly persistent yet mutable form, process, outcome of its immutable formless essence.” *The Life Divine
"What is original and eternal for ever in the Divine is the Being, what is developed in consciousness, conditions, forces, forms, etc., by the Divine Power is the Becoming. The eternal Divine is the Being; the universe in Time and all that is apparent in it is a Becoming.” Letters on Yoga
"Being and Becoming, One and Many are both true and are both the same thing: Being is one, Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness.” The Upanishads :::
"Our whole apparent life has only a symbolic value & is good & necessary as a becoming; but all becoming has being for its goal & fulfilment & God is the only being.” *Essays Divine and Human
"Our being is a roughly constituted chaos into which we have to introduce the principle of a divine order.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
belief ::: 1. Confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. 2. Trust or confidence, faith. 3. Something believed; an opinion or conviction. beliefs.
Question: "Sweet Mother, l don"t understand very clearly the difference between faith, belief and confidence.”
Mother: "But Sri Aurobindo has given the full explanation here. If you don"t understand, then. . . He has written ‘Faith is a feeling in the whole being." The whole being, yes. Faith, that"s the whole being at once. He says that belief is something that occurs in the head, that is purely mental; and confidence is quite different. Confidence, one can have confidence in life, trust in the Divine, trust in others, trust in one"s own destiny, that is, one has the feeling that everything is going to help him, to do what he wants to do. Faith is a certitude without any proof. Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 6.
beloved ::: n. 1. A person who is dearly loved. beloved"s, Beloved, Beloved"s. *adj. *2. Dearly loved.
besetter ::: one who or that which besets.
blind ::: adj. 1. Unable to see; lacking the sense of sight; sightless. Also fig. 2. Unwilling or unable to perceive or understand. 3. Lacking all consciousness or awareness. 4. Not having or based on reason or intelligence; absolute and unquestioning. 5. Not characterized or determined by reason or control. 6. Purposeless; fortuitous, random. 7. Undiscriminating; heedless; reckless. 8. Enveloped in darkness; dark, dim, obscure. 9. Dense enough to form a screen. 10. Covered or concealed from sight; hidden from immediate view. 11. Having no openings or passages for light; (a window or door) walled up. blindest, half-blind. v. 12. To deprive of sight permanently or temporarily. 13. To make sightless momentarily; dazzle. blinded.* n. 14. A blind person, esp. as pl., those who are blind. 15. Fig.* Any thing or action intended to conceal one"s real intention; a pretence, a pretext; subterfuge.
bondage ::: 1. The state of one who is bound as a slave or serf. 2. A state of subjection to a force, power, or influence.
bondslave ::: a person in a state of slavery; one whose person and liberty are subjected to the authority of a master. bondslaves.
borrower ::: one who receives something or appropriates it from another source.
breakers ::: 1. Those who break down barriers, etc. 2. Waves that crest and break on the shore or coast. breakers".
bride ::: 1. A woman who is about to be married or has recently been married. Also fig. 2. The divine creatrix. Bride, brides, earth-bride.
bridegroom ::: a man who is about to be married, or has recently been married.
brute ::: n. **1. Any animal except man; a beast; a lower animal. brute"s. adj. 2. Animal, not human. 3. Lacking or showing a lack of reason or intelligence. 4. Wholly instinctive; senseless; coarse; brutish; dull. 5. Resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility; cruel or savage. brute-sensed.**
builder ::: a person who builds. Also fig. builders, Babel-builders", master-builders.
"But always the whole foundation of the gnostic life must be by its very nature inward and not outward. In the life of the Spirit it is the Spirit, the inner Reality, that has built up and uses the mind, vital being and body as its instrumentation; thought, feeling and action do not exist for themselves, they are not an object, but the means; they serve to express the manifested divine Reality within us: otherwise, without this inwardness, this spiritual origination, in a too externalised consciousness or by only external means, no greater or divine life is possible.” The Life Divine
"But in the larger universal consciousness there must be a power of carrying this movement to its absolute point, to the greatest extreme possible for any relative movement to reach, and this point is reached, not in human unconsciousness which is not abiding and always refers back to the awakened conscious being that man normally and characteristically is, but in the inconscience of material Nature. This inconscience is no more real than the ignorance of exclusive concentration in our temporary being which limits the waking consciousness of man; for as in us, so in the atom, the metal, the plant, in every form of material Nature, in every energy of material Nature, there is, we know, a secret soul, a secret will, a secret intelligence at work, other than the mute self-oblivious form, the Conscient, — conscient even in unconscious things, — of the Upanishad, without whose presence and informing Conscious-Force or Tapas no work of Nature could be done.” The Life Divine
". . . but this divine grace . . . is not simply a mysterious flow or touch coming from above, but the all-pervading act of a divine presence which we come to know within as the power of the highest Self and Master of our being entering into the soul and so possessing it that we not only feel it close to us and pressing upon our mortal nature, but live in its law, know that law, possess it as the whole power of our spiritualised nature.” The Synthesis of Yoga
bystander ::: one who is present at an event without participating in it; onlooker; spectator.
call ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
captain ::: 1. One who commands, leads, or guides others. 2. The officer in command of a ship, an aircraft, or a spacecraft.
captive ::: n. 1. One, such as a prisoner of war, who is forcibly confined, subjugated, or enslaved. captives. v. 2. Those taken and held as a prisoners. captived. adj. 3. Kept under restraint or control; confined. 4. Enraptured, as by beauty; captivated.
cenotaphs ::: monuments erected in honour of dead persons whose remains lie elsewhere.
charade ::: a game in which each syllable of a word, and then the whole word, is acted and the audience has to guess the word.
charlatan ::: one who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud; a flamboyant deceiver.
child ::: 1. A person between birth and full growth. 2. A baby or infant. 3. A person who has not attained maturity. 4. One who is childish or immature. 5. An individual regarded as strongly affected by another or by a specified time, place, or circumstance. 6. Any person or thing regarded as the product or result of particular agencies, influences, etc. Child, child"s, children, Children, children"s, child-god, Child-Godhead, child-heart, child-heart"s, child-laughter, child-soul, child-sovereign, child-thought, flame-child, foster-child, God-child, King-children.
circean ::: relating to or resembling Circe, the fabled enchantress described by Homer. She was supposed to possess great knowledge of magic and venomous herbs which she offered as a drink to her charmed and fascinated victims who then changed into swine; hence, pleasing, but harmful; fascinating, but degrading.
claimant ::: someone who claims a benefit, right or title. claimants.
coilas ::: (Most often spelled Kailas.) "One of the highest and most rugged mountains of the Himalayan range, located in the southwestern part of China. It is an important holy site both to the Hindus, who identify it with the paradise of Shiva and also regard it as the abode of Kubera, and to the Tibetan Buddhists, who identify it with Mount Sumeru, cosmic centre of the universe.” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
colonist ::: a person who settles in a new colony or moves into and helps found a colony or new country.
colony ::: a group of emigrants or their descendants who settle in a distant territory but remain subject to or closely associated with the parent country. colonies.
common ::: 1. Belonging equally to or shared alike by two or more. 2. Of or relating to the community or humanity as a whole. 3. Belonging equally to or shared equally by two or more; joint. 4. Not distinguished by superior or noteworthy characteristics; average; ordinary. 5. Occurring frequently or habitually; usual. commonest.
communicant ::: a person who communicates, informs or imparts.
companion ::: 1. A person who accompanies or associates with another; a comrade. 2. Astronomy. The fainter of the two stars that constitute a double star. companions, companionless.
compassion ::: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. compassion"s.
competitors ::: those who strive to outdo others, engage in a contest, or seek an object in rivalry with others also seeking it.
complements ::: 1. Things that complete, make up a whole, or bring to perfection. 2. Things that complete each other when combined and complete the whole.
composer ::: one who composes, especially a person who composes music.
compound ::: to combine so as to form a whole; mix; mix (elements). mix with.
comrade ::: one who shares in one"s activities, occupation, etc.; companion, associate, or friend. comrades, comradeship.
cone ::: 1. A solid whose surface is generated by a straight line, the generator, passing through a fixed point, the vertex, and moving along a fixed curve, the directrix. 2. Anything that tapers from a circular section to a point.
confidante ::: a woman to whom secrets are confided or with whom private matters and problems are discussed.
conqueror ::: someone who is victorious by force of arms. conqueror"s.
constituent ::: serving as part of a whole; component.
cosharers ::: those who receive, possess, or occupy (something) together with others.
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmologist ::: one who studies the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space.
cosmos ::: the universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole. cosmos", cosmos-chaos.
counsels ::: knowledgeable sources who give advice or guidance.
courtier ::: a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage.
craftsman ::: a person who practices or is highly skilled in a craft; artisan. (Here in reference to the Divine). craftsman** **(in general).
creature ::: 1. Something created; a living being, esp. an animal. 2. A human. 3. A person who is dependent upon another; tool or puppet. creature"s, creatures, creatures".
critic ::: one who forms and expresses judgments of the merits, faults, value, or truth of a matter; esp. one who finds fault.
cupbearers ::: servants who fill and serve wine in cups, as in a royal palace or at an elaborate banquet.
cyclopean ::: pertaining to one of a race of giants having a single eye in the middle of the forehead or any of three one-eyed Titans who forged thunderbolts for Zeus.
cynic ::: 1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness and whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative. 2. *adj. *Bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic.
deaf ::: 1. Partially or wholly lacking, or deprived of the sense of hearing. 2. Refusing to listen, heed, or be persuaded.
defeatist ::: marked by the attitude of one who admits, expects, or no longer resists defeat, as because of a conviction that further struggle or effort is futile.
demigod ::: a mythological being who is partly divine and partly human; an inferior deity. demigod"s, demigods.
demiurges ::: 1. A Platonic deity who orders or fashions the material world out of chaos. 2. (in Gnostic and some other philosophies) The creator of the universe, supernatural but subordinate to the Supreme Being. ::: Demiurges.
demoniac ::: v. 1. Possessed, produced, or influenced by a demon. 2. Of, resembling, or suggestive of a devil; fiendish. n. 3. One who is or seems to be possessed by a demon.
"Destruction is always a simultaneous or alternate element which keeps pace with creation and it is by destroying and renewing that the Master of Life does his long work of preservation. More, destruction is the first condition of progress. Inwardly, the man who does not destroy his lower self-formations, cannot rise to a greater existence. Outwardly also, the nation or community or race which shrinks too long from destroying and replacing its past forms of life, is itself destroyed, rots and perishes and out of its debris other nations, communities and races are formed. By destruction of the old giant occupants man made himself a place upon earth. By destruction of the Titans the gods maintain the continuity of the divine Law in the cosmos. Whoever prematurely attempts to get rid of this law of battle and destruction, strives vainly against the greater will of the World-Spirit.” Essays on the Gita
diplomat ::: one who is tactful and skilful in negotiating and managing delicate situations, handling people, etc. diplomatic.
disciples ::: those who are pupils or adherents of the doctrines of another; followers.
discoverer ::: someone who is the first to observe something unknown or unseen. discoverers.
dispenser ::: one who bestows or administers.
disputants ::: those who argue or dispute.
divine Mother ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates.” *The Mother
divine ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine is the Supreme Truth because it is the Supreme Being from whom all have come and in whom all are.” *Letters on Yoga
::: "Divinisation itself does not mean the destruction of the human elements; it means taking them up, showing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purification and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole of earthly life to its full power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
doer ::: one who acts and gets things done. Doer.
dragon of the dark foundation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother, Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, Master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, — Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.” The Secret of the Veda
dreamer ::: a person who dreams; a prophet; visionary. Dreamer, dreamer"s.
drudge ::: one who labours without interest in dull or unimaginative ways; a labourer, slave.
drunkards ::: those who habitually drink alcohol to excess.
dupe ::: one who unquestioningly or unwittingly serves a cause or another person.
durga ::: "In Hindu religion, the goddess who is the Energy of Shiva and the conquering and protecting aspect of the Universal Mother. She is the slayer of many demons including Mahisasura. Durga is usually depicted in painting and sculpture riding a lion, having eight or ten arms, each holding the special weapon of one or another of the gods who gave them to her for her battles with demons. (A; Enc. Br.)” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.
dweller ::: one who lives as a resident or inhabits a particular place.
"Each is the whole Eternal concealed.” The Life Divine
"Each person follows in the world his own line of destiny which is determined by his own nature and actions — the meaning and necessity of what happens in a particular life cannot be understood except in the light of the whole course of many lives. But this can be seen by those who can get beyond the ordinary mind and feelings and see things as a whole, that even errors, misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, — the soul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe for the transition which will carry it beyond these things to a higher consciousness and higher life.” Letters on Yoga*
electors ::: those who chose or elect to do something.
element ::: 1. A component or constituent of a whole. 2. One of the substances, usually earth, water, air, and fire, formerly regarded as constituting the material universe. 3. A natural habitat, sphere of activity, environment, etc. elements.
enemy ::: n. 1. A hostile person, power, force or nation. 2. One who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interests of another; a foe. enemy"s *adj. *3. Of, relating to, or being a hostile power or force.
engineers ::: those who design, plan or mastermind. Also fig.
enjoyer ::: a person who delights in having or using or experiencing something.
ensemble ::: all the parts of something considered together and in relation to the whole.
entire ::: having no part excluded or left out; whole.
epicure ::: a person who cultivates a refined taste; connoisseur.
epitome ::: a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class; embodiment, quintessence.
equal ::: adj. 1. As great as; the same as (often followed by to or with). 2. Having the same quantity, value, or measure as another. 3. Evenly proportioned or balanced. 4. Tranquil; equable; undisturbed. 5. Impartial; just; equitable. n. 6. One who is equal to another in any specified quality. v. **7. To become equal or level with. equalled.**
". . . equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman, of becoming Brahman, of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the Infinite. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated; for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature, of our having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities, of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gunas, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquillity of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
executor ::: 1. A person who carries out or performs something. 2. A person named in a will to carry out the provisions of that will. executors.
exegete ::: one who explains or gives a critical interpretation of a text.
expert ::: adj. 1. Skilled through training or practice. n. 2. A person who has extensive skill or knowledge in a particular field. experts.
explorer ::: a person who investigates unknown regions.
fifth-columnist ::: one who acts traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy; a spy.
fighter ::: one who fights, struggles, resists, etc.
"Finally, he becomes aware of that highest dynamic Self within him and within Nature which is the source of all his seeing and knowing, the source of the sanction, the source of the acceptance, the source of the rejection. This is the Lord, the Supreme, the One-in-all, Ishwara-Shakti, of whom his soul is a portion, a being of that Being and a power of that Power.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "Finally, the mind will come to know the Purusha in the mind as the master of Nature whose sanction is necessary to her movements.” The Synthesis of Yoga
follower ::: 1. Someone who travels behind or pursues another. 2. One who subscribes to the teachings or methods of another; an adherent. followers.
::: Footnote: "E.g. the Russellian fear of emptiness which is the form the active mind gives to Silence. Yet it was on what you call emptiness, on the Silence, that my whole yoga was founded and it was through it that there came afterwards all the inexhaustible riches of a greater Knowledge, Will and Joy — all the experiences of greater mental, psychic and vital realms, all the ranges up to overmind and beyond. The cup has often to be emptied before it can be new-filled; the yogin, the sadhak ought not to be afraid of emptiness or silence.” Letters on Yoga
". . . Force is inherent in Existence. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti are one and not two who are separable. Force inherent in existence may be at rest or it may be in motion, but when it is at rest, it exists none the less and is not abolished, diminished or in any way essentially altered.” The Life Divine
"For it is only the few who can make the past Teacher and his teaching, the past Incarnation and his example and influence a living force in their lives. For this need also the Hindu discipline provides in the relation of the Guru and the disciple. The Guru may sometimes be the Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent to the disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal or make him feel the realised relation of the human soul with the Eternal.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
::: "For the impersonal Divine is not ultimately an abstraction or a mere principle or a mere state or power and degree of being any more than we ourselves are really such abstractions. The intellect first approaches it through such conceptions, but realisation ends by exceeding them. Through the realisation of higher and higher principles of being and states of conscious existence we arrive not at the annullation of all in a sort of positive zero or even an inexpressible state of existence, but at the transcendent Existence itself which is also the Existent who transcends all definition by personality and yet is always that which is the essence of personality.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For the supermind is a Truth-Consciousness in which the Divine Reality, fully manifested, no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance; a truth of status of being which is absolute becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being which is self-existent and perfect. Every movement there is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being and every part is in entire harmony with the whole. Even the most limited and finite action is in the Truth-Consciousness a movement of the Eternal and Infinite and partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
foster-child ::: a child raised by someone who is not its natural or adoptive parent.
gnome ::: one of a fabled race of dwarflike creatures who live underground and guard treasure hoards. gnomes.
godlings ::: minor gods; inferior deities, those imagined as possessing little power, esp. those whose influence or authority is entirely local.
gods ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Gods are Brahman representing Itself in cosmic Personalities expressive of the one Godhead who, in their impersonal action, appear as the various play of the principles of Nature.” *The Upanishads
gorgon ::: greek myth any of three winged monstrous sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, who had live snakes for hair, huge teeth, and brazen claws. A glance at Medusa who was slain by Perseus) turned the beholder to stone.
guarantor ::: one who provides a warrant or guarantee to another.
guest ::: 1. One who is a recipient of hospitality at the home or table of another. Also fig. guests
guide ::: n. 1. One who goes with or before for the purpose of leading the way: said of persons, of God, Providence, and of impersonal agents, such as stars, light, etc. 2. One who shows the way by leading, directing, or advising. Also fig. 3. One who serves as a model for others, as in a course of conduct. Guide, guides. v. 4. To assist one to travel through, or reach a destination in, an unfamiliar area, as by accompanying or giving directions. 5. To direct the course of; steer. 6.* Fig. To lead the way for (a person). guides, guided, guiding. **adj. *guideless.**
harlot ::: a woman prostitute; a whore.
harmonist ::: one who brings everything into harmony. (Here referring to the Divine) Sri Aurobindo capitalises the word.
harmony ::: 1. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole. 2. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord. 3. Combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear. 4. A simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm. harmony"s, harmonies, harmonious, harmoniously.
hasteners ::: those who hurry.
haters ::: those who hate.
hatred ::: the feeling of one who hates; intense dislike or extreme aversion or hostility; detestation, loathing, enmity.
heal ::: 1. To restore to health or soundness; cure. 2.* Fig. To restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness. 3. To become whole and sound; return to health. 4. To bring to an end or conclusion, as conflicts between people or groups, usually with a strong implication of restoring former amity; settle; reconcile. *heals, healed, healing.
heir ::: a person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another. heirs.
heralds ::: those who proclaim or announce.
herbs ::: a flowering plant whose stem above ground does not become woody.
herdsman ::: one who is the keeper of a herd or tends to it.
hermit ::: one who has withdrawn to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; a recluse. hermits, hermit-life, hermit-roofs.
hero ::: 1. One who is distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc. 2. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) hero"s, heroes.
"He who is the high and low, the saint and the sinner, the god and the worm, Him worship, the visible, the knowable, the real, the omnipresent; break all other idols. In whom there is neither past life nor future birth, nor death nor going nor coming, in whom we always have been and always will be one, Him worship; break all other idols."" The Synthesis of Yoga*
"He whose self has become all existences, for he has the knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief, he who sees everywhere oneness? — Isha Upanishad.” [Sri Aurobindo"s translation] ::: *oneness"
hide-and-seek ::: a children"s game in which one player tries to find and catch others who are hiding.
hierarchs ::: those who rule or have authority in sacred things; high priests.
high-browed ::: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of one who possesses superior intellectual attainments or interests; intellectually superior.
hinduism. An avatar of Vishnu and one of the most popular of Indian deities, who appears in the Bhagavad-Gita as the teacher of Arjuna.
" . . . humility is the first necessity, for one who has ego and pride cannot realise the Highest.” *Letters on Yoga
"I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness —. . . .” Letters on Yoga
"I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga*
::: ". . . immortality in its fundamental sense does not mean merely some kind of personal survival of the bodily death; we are immortal by the eternity of our self-existence without beginning or end, beyond the whole succession of physical births and deaths through which we pass, beyond the alternations of our existence in this and other worlds: the spirit"s timeless existence is the true immortality.” *The Life Divine
impostor ::: a person who practices deception under an assumed character, identity, or name.
included ::: being part of the whole; contained; covered.
inconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscient and the Ignorance may be mere empty abstractions and can be dismissed as irrelevant jargon if one has not come in collision with them or plunged into their dark and bottomless reality. But to me they are realities, concrete powers whose resistance is present everywhere and at all times in its tremendous and boundless mass.” *Letters on Savitri
". . . in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient — the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe — or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat.” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it — ‘an inert Soul with a somnambulist Force".” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga :::
"The Inconscient is a sleep or a prison, the conscient a round of strivings without ultimate issue or the wanderings of a dream: we must wake into the superconscious where all darkness of night and half-lights cease in the self-luminous bliss of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
"Men have not learnt yet to recognise the Inconscient on which the whole material world they see is built, or the Ignorance of which their whole nature including their knowledge is built; they think that these words are only abstract metaphysical jargon flung about by the philosophers in their clouds or laboured out in long and wearisome books like The Life Divine. Letters on Savitri :::
"Is it really a fact that even the ordinary reader would not be able to see any difference between the Inconscient and Ignorance unless the difference is expressly explained to him? This is not a matter of philosophical terminology but of common sense and the understood meaning of English words. One would say ‘even the inconscient stone" but one would not say, as one might of a child, ‘the ignorant stone". One must first be conscious before one can be ignorant. What is true is that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with the philosophical content of the word Inconscient and might not be familiar with the Vedantic idea of the Ignorance as the power behind the manifested world. But I don"t see how I can acquaint him with these things in a single line, even with the most. illuminating image or symbol. He might wonder, if he were Johnsonianly minded, how an Inconscient could be teased or how it could wake Ignorance. I am afraid, in the absence of a miracle of inspired poetical exegesis flashing through my mind, he will have to be left wondering.” Letters on Savitri
**inconscient, Inconscient"s.**
indicator ::: one who or that which points to or towards the presence, existence, or reality of (something); is a sign or symptom of, betokens.
"Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses. This is the supreme sign of the Master. For the greatest Master is much less a Teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its constituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
ingredients ::: constituent elements of a mixture or whole; components.
"In Greek mythology, a giant with a hundred arms, a son of Uranus and Ge, who fought against the gods. He was hurled down by Athene and imprisoned beneath Mt. Aetna in Sicily. When he stirs, the mountain shakes; when he breathes, there is an eruption. (M.I.; Web.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
inheritor ::: fig. A person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another either material or immaterial; an heir. inheritors.
initiator ::: a person who initiates a course of action.
inquirer ::: one who seeks or questions.
intact ::: not altered, broken, or impaired; remaining uninjured, sound, or whole; untouched; unblemished.
integer ::: an individual entity or whole unit. integers.
integral ::: entire; complete; whole.
". . . intellectual expression of the Truth . . . a means of expressing this greater discovery and as much of its contents as can at all be expressed in mental terms to those who still live in the mental intelligence.” Letters on Yoga
interned ::: restricted to or confined within prescribed limits, as prisoners of war, enemy aliens, or combat troops who take refuge in a neutral country. Also fig.
intuition ::: direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process. intuition"s, intuitions, half-intuition.
Sri Aurobindo: "Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” *The Life Divine
"Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings"". When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"I use the word ‘intuition" for want of a better. In truth, it is a makeshift and inadequate to the connotation demanded of it. The same has to be said of the word ‘consciousness" and many others which our poverty compels us to extend illegitimately in their significance.” *The Life Divine - Sri Aurobindo"s footnote.
"For intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret Supermind. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . intuition is born of a direct awareness while intellect is an indirect action of a knowledge which constructs itself with difficulty out of the unknown from signs and indications and gathered data.” The Life Divine
"Intuition is above illumined Mind which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
"Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” Letters on Yoga
intuitive knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The intuitive knowledge on the contrary, however limited it may be in its field or application, is within that scope sure with an immediate, a durable and especially a self-existent certitude.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
invader ::: one who intrudes or enters in a hostile manner or with hostile intent. invaders.
"It [death] has no separate existence by itself, it is only a result of the principle of decay in the body and that principle is there already — it is part of the physical nature. At the same time it is not inevitable; if one could have the necessary consciousness and force, decay and death is not inevitable. But to bring that consciousness and force into the whole of the material nature is the most difficult thing of all — at any rate, in such a way as to annul the decay principle.” Letters on Yoga
"It is He that has gone abroad — That which is bright, bodi-less, without scar of imperfection, without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil. The Seer, the Thinker,(1) the One who becomes everywhere, the Self-existent has ordered objects perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal.” The Upanishads
"It is only divine Love which can bear the burden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything else to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine.” On Himself
" . . . it is through self-giving or surrender of soul and nature to the Divine Being that we can attain to our highest self and supreme Reality, for it is the Divine Being who is that highest self and that supreme Reality, and we are self-existent and eternal only in his eternity and by his self-existence.” The Life Divine
"It is true that the subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature and has in it the secret of the unseen dynamisms which explain his surface activities. But the lower vital subconscious which is all that this psycho-analysis of Freud seems to know, — and even of that it knows only a few ill-lit corners, — is no more than a restricted and very inferior portion of the subliminal whole.” Letters on Yoga
It is true that the subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature and has in it the secret of the unseen dynamisms which explain his surface activities. But the lower vital subconscious which is all that this psycho-analysis of Freud seems to know, — and even of that it knows only a few ill-lit corners, — is no more than a restricted and very inferior portion of the subliminal whole. The subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges.” *Letters on Yoga
judge ::: one who makes or is qualified to make estimates as to worth, quality, or fitness.
king ::: 1. A male sovereign. 2. One that is supreme or preeminent in a particular group, category, or sphere. 3. Fig. One who or that which is preeminent in a particular category or group or field. king"s, kings, Kings, king-children, king-sages.
king-smith ::: one who forges and shapes iron with an anvil and hammer.
::: "Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence.” *Essays Divine and Human
labourer ::: 1. Someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labour. 2. A worker; one who is engaged in physical work, esp. of an unskilled kind. labourers.
leader ::: 1. One that leads or guides. 2. One who or that which goes before or in advance of; proceeds first. leaders.
lead ::: v. 1. To go in advance; act as a guide; show the way. 2. To guide in direction, course, action, opinion, etc. 3. Of a way, road, etc.: To serve as a passage for, conduct (a person) to or into a place; hence, to have a specified goal or direction. 4. To pass or go through; live. 5. To result in; tend toward (often followed by to). 6. To indicate, as a clue, guide or indication of a route way, course. leads, leading, leadst.* n. 7. Anything or anyone who guides or directs by leading; going in front. ::: (Note: See also *sounding leads.)
lodgers ::: those who pay rent in return for accommodation in someone else"s house.
lotus (as chakra) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This arrangement of the psychic body is reproduced in the physical with the spinal column as a rod and the ganglionic centres as the chakras which rise up from the bottom of the column, where the lowest is attached, to the brain and find their summit in the brahmarandhra at the top of the skull. These chakras or lotuses, however, are in physical man closed or only partly open, with the consequence that only such powers and only so much of them are active in him as are sufficient for his ordinary physical life, and so much mind and soul only is at play as will accord with its need. This is the real reason, looked at from the mechanical point of view, why the embodied soul seems so dependent on the bodily and nervous life, — though the dependence is neither so complete nor so real as it seems. The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, — therefore it is called the kundalinî sakti, — in the lowest of the chakras, in the mûlâdhâra.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
lover ::: 1. Someone who loves a specified person, thing, ideal, etc. 2. A person who is in love with another. Lover, lover"s, Lover"s, lovers.
low-brow ::: one who is not intellectual; unaesthetic, unrefined.
lyrist ::: 1. Music. One who plays a lyre. 2. A lyric poet.
madran ::: one whose home is in Madra.
magician ::: 1. A person who is skilled in magic; sorcerer. 2. A person who has extraordinary skill, influence, or qualities. magician"s, Magician, Magician"s, World-Magician"s.
malady ::: 1. Any disorder or disease of the body, esp. one that is chronic or deep-seated. 2. Any unwholesome, unhealthy, morbid or desperate condition. maladies.
Man alive, your proposed emendations are an admirable exposition of the art of bringing a line down the steps till my poor "slow miraculous” above-mind line meant to give or begin the concrete portrayal of an act of some hidden Godhead finally becomes a mere metaphor thrown out from its more facile mint by a brilliantly imaginative poetic intelligence. First of all, you shift my "dimly” out of the way and transfer it to something to which it does not inwardly belongs make it an epithet of the gesture or an adverb qualifying its epithet instead of something that qualifies the atmosphere in which the act of the Godhead takes place. That is a preliminary havoc which destroys what is very important to the action, its atmosphere. I never intended the gesture to be dim, it is a luminous gesture, but forcing its way through the black quietude it comes dimly. Then again the bald phrase "a gesture came” without anything to psychicise it becomes simply something that "happened”, "came” being a poetic equivalent for "happened”, instead of the expression of the slow coming of the gesture. The words "slow” and "dimly” assure this sense of motion and this concreteness to the word"s sense here. Remove one or both whether entirely or elsewhere and you ruin the vision and change altogether its character. That is at least what happens wholly in your penultimate version and as for the last its "came” gets another meaning and one feels that somebody very slowly decided to let out the gesture from himself and it was quite a miracle that it came out at all! "Dimly miraculous” means what precisely or what "miraculously dim” — it was miraculous that it managed to be so dim or there was something vaguely miraculous about it after all? No doubt they try to mean something else — but these interpretations come in their way and trip them over. The only thing that can stand is the first version which is no doubt fine poetry, but the trouble is that it does not give the effect I wanted to give, the effect which is necessary for the dawn"s inner significance. Moreover, what becomes of the slow lingering rhythm of my line which is absolutely indispensable? Letters on Savitri
mariner ::: one who navigates or assists in navigating a ship.
martyr ::: one who makes great sacrifices or suffers much, even death, in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.
masons ::: those who build or work with stone or brick.
masseuse ::: a woman who gives massages professionally.
master ::: n. 1. One who has the power, knowledge and ability to control, manage, direct; as a teacher, guru, etc. with the authority and qualifications to teach apprentices. 2. A person eminently skilled in something, as an occupation, art, or science. 3. A person who has general authority over others. master"s, masters. *v. 4. To be or become completely proficient or skilled in; become an adept in. masters, mastered. adj. 5. Being master; exercising mastery; dominant. 6. Dominating or predominant. 7. Chief or principle. *master-clue, master-point.
master of Nature ::: Sri Aurobindo: "There is a divine Master of Nature and her works, above her though inhabiting her, who is our highest being and our universal self; to be one with him is to make ourselves divine. By union with God we enter into a supreme freedom and a supreme mastery.” *Essays on the Gita
measurer ::: a person who takes measurements. measurers.
mediatrix ::: a woman who is a mediator.
member ::: 1. A constituent part of a composite whole; element; portion. 2. A part or an organ of a human or animal body. members.
merchant ::: n. 1. One who runs a retail business; a shopkeeper. adj. 2. Pertaining to or used for trade or commerce.
midwife ::: a person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth.
mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ‘Mind" in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this yoga the words ‘mind" and ‘mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will, etc., that are part of his intelligence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Mind in its essence is a consciousness which measures, limits, cuts out forms of things from the indivisible whole and contains them as if each were a separate integer.” The Life Divine
"Mind is an instrument of analysis and synthesis, but not of essential knowledge. Its function is to cut out something vaguely from the unknown Thing in itself and call this measurement or delimitation of it the whole, and again to analyse the whole into its parts which it regards as separate mental objects.” The Life Divine
"The mind proper is divided into three parts — thinking Mind, dynamic Mind, externalising Mind — the former concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right, the second with the putting out of mental forces for realisation of the idea, the third with the expression of them in life (not only by speech, but by any form it can give).” Letters on Yoga
"The difference between the ordinary mind and the intuitive is that the former, seeking in the darkness or at most by its own unsteady torchlight, first, sees things only as they are presented in that light and, secondly, where it does not know, constructs by imagination, by uncertain inference, by others of its aids and makeshifts things which it readily takes for truth, shadow projections, cloud edifices, unreal prolongations, deceptive anticipations, possibilities and probabilities which do duty for certitudes. The intuitive mind constructs nothing in this artificial fashion, but makes itself a receiver of the light and allows the truth to manifest in it and organise its own constructions.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"He [man] has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"Our mind is an observer of actuals, an inventor or discoverer of possibilities, but not a seer of the occult imperatives that necessitate the movements and forms of a creation. . . .” *The Life Divine
"The human mind is an instrument not of truth but of ignorance and error.” Letters on Yoga
"For Mind as we know it is a power of the Ignorance seeking for Truth, groping with difficulty to find it, reaching only mental constructions and representations of it in word and idea, in mind formations, sense formations, — as if bright or shadowy photographs or films of a distant Reality were all that it could achieve.” The Life Divine
The Mother: "The true role of the mind is the formation and organization of action. The mind has a formative and organizing power, and it is that which puts the different elements of inspiration in order for action, for organizing action. And if it would only confine itself to that role, receiving inspirations — whether from above or from the mystic centre of the soul — and simply formulating the plan of action — in broad outline or in minute detail, for the smallest things of life or the great terrestrial organizations — it would amply fulfil its function. It is not an instrument of knowledge. But is can use knowledge for action, to organize action. It is an instrument of organization and formation, very powerful and very capable when it is well developed.” Questions and Answers 1956, MCW Vol. 8.*
minstrels ::: medieval entertainers who traveled from place to place, especially to sing and recite poetry.
miser ::: one who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money. misers.
monitors ::: those who observe, supervise, or keep under review; esp. for the purpose of regulation or control.
monopolist ::: one who has exclusive possession or control of something.
moralist ::: one who teaches or inculcates conformity to the rules of right or virtuous conduct.
mother ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates.” The Mother ::: "The one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine.
"That which we call Nature or Prakriti is only her [the Mother"s] most outward executive aspect; she marshals and arranges the harmony of her forces and processes, impels the operations of Nature and moves among them secret or manifest in all that can be seen or experienced or put into motion of life.” *The Mother
: "The Mother comes in order to bring down the Supramental and it is the descent which makes her full manifestation here possible.” *Letters on the Mother
"When one does sadhana, the inner consciousness begins to open and one is able to go inside and have all kinds of experiences there. As the sadhana progresses, one begins to live more and more in this inner being and the outer becomes more and more superficial. At first the inner consciousness seems to be the dream and the outer the waking reality. Afterwards the inner consciousness becomes the reality and the outer is felt by many as a dream or delusion, or else as something superficial and external. The inner consciousness begins to be a place of deep peace, light, happiness, love, closeness to the Divine or the presence of the Divine, the Mother.” Letters on Yoga ::: **mighty Mother, World-Mother, World-Mother"s.**
movement ::: 1. The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position. A particular manner of moving. 2. Usually, movements, actions or activities, as of a person or a body of persons. ::: movement"s, movements, many-movemented.
Sri Aurobindo: "When we withdraw our gaze from its egoistic preoccupation with limited and fleeting interests and look upon the world with dispassionate and curious eyes that search only for the Truth, our first result is the perception of a boundless energy of infinite existence, infinite movement, infinite activity pouring itself out in limitless Space, in eternal Time, an existence that surpasses infinitely our ego or any ego or any collectivity of egos, in whose balance the grandiose products of aeons are but the dust of a moment and in whose incalculable sum numberless myriads count only as a petty swarm." *The Life Divine
". . . the purest, freest form of insight into existence as it is shows us nothing but movement. Two things alone exist, movement in Space, movement in Time, the former objective, the latter subjective.” The Life Divine
"The world is a cyclic movement (samsâra ) of the Divine Consciousness in Space and Time. Its law and, in a sense, its object is progression; it exists by movement and would be dissolved by cessation of movement. But the basis of this movement is not material; it is the energy of active consciousness which, by its motion and multiplication in different principles (different in appearance, the same in essence), creates oppositions of unity and multiplicity, divisions of Time and Space, relations and groupings of circumstance and Causality. All these things are real in consciousness, but only symbolic of the Being, somewhat as the imaginations of a creative Mind are true representations of itself, yet not quite real in comparison with itself, or real with a different kind of reality.” The Upanishads*
muse ::: myth. Any of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom presided over a different art or science.
mystic ::: n. **1. One who believes in the existence of realities beyond human comprehension and who has had spiritual experiences. mystic"s. adj. 2. Of occult character, power, or significance. 3. Of the nature of or pertaining to mysteries known only to the initiated; esoteric. 4.** Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding.
n. 1. A small part broken off or detached from any larger whole. 2. An incomplete and unfinished piece; portion. 3. An incomplete or isolated portion; a bit. fragments, fragment-being, fragment-mirrorings. *v. 4. To break or separate (something) into fragments. *fragmented.
narad ::: "A well-known Rishi and Vaishnava Bhakta who moves about in the various worlds playing on a lute and having a special role in bringing about events according to the Divine Will.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names In Sri Aurobindo"s Works
::: "Nothing can be destroyed for all is He who is for ever.” Essays Divine and Human*
nurse ::: n. 1. One who tends or looks after another. 2. Fig. One that serves as a nurturing or fostering influence or means. v. 3. To feed at the breast of; suckle. 4. To manage or guide carefully; look after with care; foster. 5. To bear privately in the mind or in the heart. nurses, nursed, nursing, earth-nursed.
nympholepts ::: those who are in an emotional frenzy, esp. with desires that cannot be fulfilled.
occultist ::: one who is versed in the occult arts.
Oh, a tremendous power—tremendous. The first time I heard it … The first time I heard it … There was a certain Bernard who had spent a year in India, in the Himalayas, and he was visited by yogis whom he didn"t know (he lived in a hut in the Himalayas, all alone). One yogi came to see him; he didn"t say anything, he just sat by his side and then left. And that yogi simply told him, "Om …” Then he came back to France, recounted his experiences in India, and he said that. Me, I knew absolutely nothing of India at the time, and when he uttered the word OM … (Mother brings her arms down), it came: a Force like this, my whole, entire body, everything vibrated in an extraordinary way! It was like a revelation—everything, but everything started vibrating. Then I said, "At last, here"s the true sound!” Yet I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, neither what it meant nor anything.
::: "OM is this syllable. This syllable is the Brahman, this syllable is the Supreme. He who knoweth the imperishable OM, whatso he willeth, it is his. This support is the best, this support is the highest; and when a man knoweth it, he is greatened in the world of Brahman.” The Upanishads
OM ::: Sri Aurobindo: "OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums up, synthesises and releases all the spiritual power and all the potentiality of Vak and Shabda and of which the other sounds, out of whose stuff words of speech are woven, are supposed to be the developed evolutions.” *Essays on the Gita
*One dealt with her who meets the burdened great. ::: Q. "Who is ‘One" here? Is it Love, the godhead mentioned before? If not, does this ‘dubious godhead with his torch of pain" correspond to the ‘image white and high of godlike pain" spoken of a little earlier? Or is it time whose ‘snare" occurs in the last line of the preceding passage?”
one who binds or bundles cereal plants as wheat, rye, rice, etc. after reaping.
one who gazes at the stars.
one who has or professes to have an unusual degree of enlightenment.
one who is versed in or practices alchemy. Pertaining to one who studies or practises alchemy. alchemist (employed as an adj. by Sri Aurobindo).
one who occupies or owns a house. house-holder.
one who saves or delivers from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner. world-redeemer"s.
oppressed ::: v. 1. Overwhelmed or crushed, esp. in battle. 2. To lie heavy on; burdened (the mind, imagination, etc.). oppresses, oppressed, oppressing.* *n. oppressed. 3. Those who are subjugated by cruelty, force, etc.; trampled down. adj. oppressed. 4.** Afflicted or tormented; burdened psychologically or mentally; caused to suffer.
oracle ::: 1. A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. 2. The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory. 3. A command or revelation from God. oracles.
"Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed.” Letters on Yoga
organise ::: form (parts or elements of something) into a structured whole; coordinate. organised, organising.
::: "Our incapacity does not matter — there is no human being who is not in his parts of nature incapable — but the Divine Force also is there. If one puts one"s trust in that, incapacity will be changed into capacity. Difficulty and struggle themselves then become a means towards the achievement.” Letters on Yoga
outrunners ::: attendants who run in front of a carriage, etc.; forerunners.
outsurging ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo who adds a prefix to surging. See surging.
overmind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The overmind is a sort of delegation from the supermind (this is a metaphor only) which supports the present evolutionary universe in which we live here in Matter. If supermind were to start here from the beginning as the direct creative Power, a world of the kind we see now would be impossible; it would have been full of the divine Light from the beginning, there would be no involution in the inconscience of Matter, consequently no gradual striving evolution of consciousness in Matter. A line is therefore drawn between the higher half of the universe of consciousness, parardha , and the lower half, aparardha. The higher half is constituted of Sat, Chit, Ananda, Mahas (the supramental) — the lower half of mind, life, Matter. This line is the intermediary overmind which, though luminous itself, keeps from us the full indivisible supramental Light, depends on it indeed, but in receiving it, divides, distributes, breaks it up into separated aspects, powers, multiplicities of all kinds, each of which it is possible by a further diminution of consciousness, such as we reach in Mind, to regard as the sole or the chief Truth and all the rest as subordinate or contradictory to it.” *Letters on Yoga
"The overmind is the highest of the planes below the supramental.” *Letters on Yoga
"In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light.” The Life Divine
"The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms: it is a sort of inferior Supermind, — although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.” The Life Divine
"The overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally; it creates and acts in the same way — it is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators.” *Letters on Yoga
"The Overmind is essentially a spiritual power. Mind in it surpasses its ordinary self and rises and takes its stand on a spiritual foundation. It embraces beauty and sublimates it; it has an essential aesthesis which is not limited by rules and canons, it sees a universal and an eternal beauty while it takes up and transforms all that is limited and particular. It is besides concerned with things other than beauty or aesthetics. It is concerned especially with truth and knowledge or rather with a wisdom that exceeds what we call knowledge; its truth goes beyond truth of fact and truth of thought, even the higher thought which is the first spiritual range of the thinker. It has the truth of spiritual thought, spiritual feeling, spiritual sense and at its highest the truth that comes by the most intimate spiritual touch or by identity. Ultimately, truth and beauty come together and coincide, but in between there is a difference. Overmind in all its dealings puts truth first; it brings out the essential truth (and truths) in things and also its infinite possibilities; it brings out even the truth that lies behind falsehood and error; it brings out the truth of the Inconscient and the truth of the Superconscient and all that lies in between. When it speaks through poetry, this remains its first essential quality; a limited aesthetical artistic aim is not its purpose.” *Letters on Savitri
"In the overmind the Truth of supermind which is whole and harmonious enters into a separation into parts, many truths fronting each other and moved each to fulfil itself, to make a world of its own or else to prevail or take its share in worlds made of a combination of various separated Truths and Truth-forces.” Letters on Yoga
*Overmind"s.
overseers ::: those who survey or watch, as from a higher position.
part ::: n. 1. An essential portion, division, piece, or segment of a whole. 2. Participation, interest, or concern in something; role. 3. Region; area. parts, part-experience. *adj. 4. Partial. v. 5. To go or come apart; separate, as two or more things. 6. To go apart from or leave one another, as persons. 7. To put or keep apart; separate. *parts, parted, parting, half-parted.
passer-by ::: a person who passes by, especially casually or by chance. passers-by.
peasant ::: a member of a class of persons, as in Europe, Asia and Latin America, who are small farmers or farm labourers of low social rank.
peer ::: a person who has equal standing with another or others, as in rank, class, or age. peers.
people ::: n. 2. The entire body of persons who constitute a community, tribe, nation, or other group by virtue of a common culture, history, religion, or the like. 3. Living beings. poet. 4. Pl. nations, races . v. 5. To fill or occupy with or as if with people; inhabit. peoples, peopled, peopling.
perfection ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Perfection in the sense in which we use it in Yoga, means a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature. In terms of knowledge it is a putting on the being of the higher self and a casting away of the darker broken lower self or a transforming of our imperfect state into the rounded luminous fullness of our real and spiritual personality. In terms of devotion and adoration it is a growing into a likeness of the nature or the law of the being of the Divine, to be united with whom we aspire, . . . .” *The Synthesis of Yoga
persons who fashion, form, or give shape to anything.
pilgrim ::: someone who journeys to different places in distant lands. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adjective.) pilgrim"s.
pillar ::: 1. A slender, freestanding, vertical support; a column. 2. *Fig. A supporter; one who sustains or supports; a mainstay. *pillars, pillar-posts, pillar-rocks.
pilot ::: 1. A person qualified to guide ships through difficult waters going into or out of a harbour. 2. Fig. One who acts as a leader or guide through difficulties or challenges.
pioneers ::: those who venture into the unknown to open up new areas of thought, research, or development, that others may follow: forerunners.
plaything ::: 1. A toy. 2. One who is used capriciously and selfishly by another. playthings.
plumbless ::: something whose depth cannot be fathomed. Also fig.
plunderer ::: someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war).
porter ::: fig. A person employed to carry burdens, esp. an attendant who carries travellers" baggage.
portion ::: 1. A part of any whole, either separated from or integrated with it. 2. The part of a whole allotted to or belonging to a person or group; share. Also fig. 3. Something that is allotted to a person by God or fate. portions.
possessor ::: a person who owns something. possessors.
posturer ::: one who acts in an affected or artificial manner, as to create a certain impression.
powers ::: Sri Aurobindo: "These are the forces and beings that are interested in maintaining the falsehoods they have created in the world of the Ignorance and in putting them forward as the Truth which men must follow. In India they are termed Asuras, Rakshasas, Pishachas (beings respectively of the mentalised vital, middle vital and lower vital planes) who are in opposition to the Gods, the Powers of Light. These too are Powers, for they too have their cosmic field in which they exercise their function and authority and some of them were once divine Powers (the former gods, purve devah , as they are called somewhere in the Mahabharata) who have fallen towards the darkness by revolt against the divine Will behind the cosmos.” Letters on Yoga
prayer ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
precisian ::: one who is strict and precise in adherence to established rules, forms, or standards, especially with regard to religious observance or moral behaviour.
presence ::: 1. The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence. 2. A divine, spiritual, or supernatural spirit or influence felt or conceived as present. 3. The immediate proximity of someone or something.
Sri Aurobindo: "It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one"s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the ‘ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” Essays Divine and Human
"But if we learn to live within, we infallibly awaken to this presence within us which is our more real self, a presence profound, calm, joyous and puissant of which the world is not the master — a presence which, if it is not the Lord Himself, is the radiation of the Lord within.” *The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
"If we need any personal and inner witness to this indivisible All-Consciousness behind the ignorance, — all Nature is its external proof, — we can get it with any completeness only in our deeper inner being or larger and higher spiritual state when we draw back behind the veil of our own surface ignorance and come into contact with the divine Idea and Will behind it. Then we see clearly enough that what we have done by ourselves in our ignorance was yet overseen and guided in its result by the invisible Omniscience; we discover a greater working behind our ignorant working and begin to glimpse its purpose in us: then only can we see and know what now we worship in faith, recognise wholly the pure and universal Presence, meet the Lord of all being and all Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” *The Life Divine
"There is a secret divine Will, eternal and infinite, omniscient and omnipotent, that expresses itself in the universality and in each particular of all these apparently temporal and finite inconscient or half-conscient things. This is the Power or Presence meant by the Gita when it speaks of the Lord within the heart of all existences who turns all creatures as if mounted on a machine by the illusion of Nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience. There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere. That Presence must remain with us as the living, pervading Reality in which we and all things exist and move and act, and we must feel it always and everywhere, concrete, visible, inhabiting all things; it must be patent to us as their true Self, tangible as their imperishable Essence, met by us closely as their inmost Spirit. To see, to feel, to sense, to contact in every way and not merely to conceive this Self and Spirit here in all existences and to feel with the same vividness all existences in this Self and Spirit, is the fundamental experience which must englobe all other knowledge.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one"s own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.” *Letters on Yoga
"For it is quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” *Essays Divine and Human
The Mother: "For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart — not in the physical heart but the psychic centre — of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
preserver ::: someone who keeps safe from harm or danger; saviour.
priestess ::: a woman who presides over religious rites, especially in pagan religions. Also fig. and transf.
profiteers ::: those who make excessive profits on goods in short supply.
prometheus ::: gr. Myth. A Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind, for which Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily.
prompter ("s) ::: 1. Theat. A person offstage who reminds the actors of forgotten lines or cues. 2. A person, thing, etc., that prompts. prompters, sprite-prompters.
proofs ::: 1. Evidence or arguments that compel the mind to accept an assertion as true. 2. Law. The whole body of evidence, as a written document or sworn statement, upon which the verdict of a court is based.
prophet ::: 1. A person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a god is expressed. 2. A person who predicts the future. prophet"s, prophets. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adjective.) prophet-passion, prophet-speech.
puppet ::: 1. An artificial figure representing a human being or an animal, manipulated by the hand, rods, wires, etc. as on a miniature stage. 2. Fig. One whose behaviour is determined by the will of others; pawn. puppets.
puritan ::: someone who adheres to strict religious principles; someone opposed to sensual pleasures.
questioner ::: someone who asks a question.
::: "Reason, on the contrary, proceeds by analysis and division and assembles its facts to form a whole; but in the assemblage so formed there are opposites, anomalies, logical incompatibilities, and the natural tendency of Reason is to affirm some and to negate others which conflict with its chosen conclusions so that it may form a flawlessly logical system.” The Life Divine*
rebel ::: n. 1. One who rebels or is in rebellion. rebel"s. adj. 3. Defiant. v. rebels. 2. Resists or defies an authority or a generally accepted convention.
receiver ::: one who or that which receives something. receivers.
recorder ::: a person who records in writing, such as an official or historian.
recreate ::: to make or create anew. re-create. : (Note: Recreate occurs twice in Savitri, the first time as a whole word and the second time as a hyphenated word.)
refugee ::: one who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution. Also fig. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.)
regent ::: one who governs as or in place of a king or queen; a ruler.
religion ::: Sri Aurobindo: "There is no word so plastic and uncertain in its meaning as the word religion. The word is European and, therefore, it is as well to know first what the Europeans mean by it. In this matter we find them, — when they can be got to think clearly on the matter at all, which is itself unusual, — divided in opinion. Sometimes they use it as equivalent to a set of beliefs, sometimes as equivalent to morality coupled with a belief in God, sometimes as equivalent to a set of pietistic actions and emotions. Faith, works and pious observances, these are the three recognised elements of European religion . . . . ::: Religion in India is a still more plastic term and may mean anything from the heights of Yoga to strangling your fellowman and relieving him of the worldly goods he may happen to be carrying with him. It would therefore take too long to enumerate everything that can be included in Indian religion. Briefly, however, it is Dharma or living religiously, the whole life being governed by religion.” *From an unpublished essay
"Remind yourself always that the Divine Force is there, that you have felt it and that, even if you seem to lose consciousness of it for a time or it seems something distant, still it is there and is sure to prevail. For those whom the Force has touched and taken up, belong thenceforth to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
reporter ::: one who investigates and reports.
republic ::: a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them. Also fig.
resident ::: one who resides in a particular place permanently or for an extended period. Here in reference to the divinity within us.
revellers ::: those who celebrate noisily in uproarious festivities.
rhapsodist ::: one who recited epic and other poetry, especially professionally, in ancient Greece. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj.)
rishi ("s) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth.” *Social and Political Thought
rival ::: one who attempts to equal or surpass another, or who pursues the same object as another; a competitor.
riveter ::: one who fixes, fastens, or secures firmly.
robot ::: one who acts and responds in a mechanical, routine manner, usually subject to another"s will; automaton.
round ::: adj. 1. Full, complete, entire. rounded. 2. Whole or complete; full. 3. Expressed to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand; rounded by approximation. adv. 4. Involving or using circular motion. 5. On all sides; all about; surrounding; enveloping. 6. In all directions from a centre or point of reference. 7. In a circular or rounded course. prep. 8. Around.
sacrificantone who offers up as a sacrifice (oneself, something, etc.).
sage ::: n. 1. A man who is venerated for his profound wisdom. sage"s, sages, king-sages. adj. 2. Having or exhibiting profound wisdom and calm judgement.
satellite ::: 1. One who attends a powerful dignitary; a subordinate. 2. A small body in orbit around a larger body. satellites.
saviour ::: 1. One who or that which delivers or rescues from peril. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) Saviour"s. 2. One who saves from sin and perdition; as God or Christ.
savitri ::: "In the Mahabharata, the heroine of the tale of Satyavan and Savitri; . . . . She was the daughter of King Ashwapati, and lover of Satyavan, whom she married although she was warned by Narada that he had only one year to live. On the fatal day, when Yama carried off Satyavan"s spirit, she followed him with unswerving devotion. Ultimately Yama was constrained to restore her husband to life.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
Sri Aurobindo: "Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; . . . .” (Author"s note at beginning of Savitri.)
"Savitri is represented in the poem as an incarnation of the Divine Mother . . . .” Letters on Savitri
The Mother: "Savitri [the poem] is a mantra for the transformation of the world.” Spoken to Udar
sceptic ::: n. 1. A person who habitually doubts the authenticity of accepted beliefs. adj. 2. Doubting, dubious, incredulous.
scholiast ::: one of the ancient commentators who annotated or wrote explanatory notes on classical authors. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.)
sculptor ::: 1. One who shapes, molds, or fashions especially with artistry or precision. 2. An artist who carves or models in stone, clay, wood, etc.
seer ::: 1. A person gifted with profound spiritual insight or knowledge; a wise person or sage who possesses intuitive powers or one to whom divine revelations are made in visions. 2. One who sees; an observer. **Seer, seers, seer-evenings, seer-summit, seer-vision"s.
"Sense is in fact the mental contact of the embodied consciousness with its surroundings. This contact is always essentially a mental phenomenon; but in fact it depends chiefly upon the development of certain physical organs of contact with objects and with their properties to whose images it is able by habit to give their mental values. What we call the physical senses have a double element, the physical-nervous impression of the object and the mental-nervous value we give to it, and the two together make up our seeing, hearing, smell, taste, touch with all those varieties of sensation of which they, and the touch chiefly, are the starting-point or first transmitting agency.” The Synthesis of Yoga
sever ::: 1. To separate (a part) from the whole as by cutting or the like. 2. To divide or be divided suddenly or forcibly; to break up; cleave. 3. To become separated from each other. severed, severing.
shepherd ::: n. 1. In combination, denoting a thing such as is used by or is characteristic of shepherds, as a shepherd"s staff. shepherd"s. 2. One who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people. Fig. a spiritual guardian. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word in this sense as an adj.) v. 3. To tend, watch over carefully, guard or guide as a shepherd does his sheep. shepherds.
"Silence means freedom from thoughts and vital movements —- when the whole consciousness is quite still.” The Mother - Flowers and Their Messages, Glossary Of Philosophical And Psychological Terms.
siren ::: classical Mythol. One of several fabulous sea nymphs, part woman, part bird, who were supposed to lure sailors to destruction by their enchanting singing. Fig. One who, or that which, sings sweetly, charms, allures, or deceives, like the Sirens. (Sri Aurobindo uses the word in its adjectival sense: Seductive, tempting.)
slave ::: 1. One bound in servitude as the property of a person or household, 2. One who is abjectly subservient to a specified person or influence. 3. Fig. One who is under the domination of some habit or influence. slaves, body-slave, slave-girl.
smith ::: someone who works metal (especially by hammering it when it is hot and malleable). king-smith.
‘soil" was an error for ‘soul". But ‘soil" is correct; for I am describing the revealing light falling upon the lower levels of the earth, not on the soul. No doubt, the whole thing is symbolic, but the symbol has to be kept in the front and the thing symbolised has to be concealed or only peep out from behind, it cannot come openly into the front and push aside the symbol.” Letters on Savitri — 1946
soldiers ::: those who work diligently for a cause.
solicitor ::: one who entreats, earnestly or respectfully requests, or petitions; one who solicits or begs favours; a pleader, intercessor, advocate.
somnambulist ::: n. 1. A person who walks in his/her sleep. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) 2. Pertaining to somnambulism, i.e. walking during sleep.)
sophist ::: one who reasons or argues adroitly and speciously rather than soundly.
sorcerer (‘s) ::: one who practises magic or sorcery; a wizard.
soul ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The word ‘soul", as also the word ‘psychic", is used very vaguely and in many different senses in the English language. More often than not, in ordinary parlance, no clear distinction is made between mind and soul and often there is an even more serious confusion, for the vital being of desire — the false soul or desire-soul — is intended by the words ‘soul" and ‘psychic" and not the true soul, the psychic being.” *Letters on Yoga
"The word soul is very vaguely used in English — as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That was why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.” *Letters on Yoga
"The word soul has various meanings according to the context; it may mean the Purusha supporting the formation of Prakriti, which we call a being, though the proper word would be rather a becoming; it may mean, on the other hand, specifically the psychic being in an evolutionary creature like man; it may mean the spark of the Divine which has been put into Matter by the descent of the Divine into the material world and which upholds all evolving formations here.” *Letters on Yoga
"A distinction has to be made between the soul in its essence and the psychic being. Behind each and all there is the soul which is the spark of the Divine — none could exist without that. But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being supported by such a soul essence but without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it.” *Letters on Yoga
"The soul and the psychic being are practically the same, except that even in things which have not developed a psychic being, there is still a spark of the Divine which can be called the soul. The psychic being is called in Sanskrit the Purusha in the heart or the Chaitya Purusha. (The psychic being is the soul developing in the evolution.)” *Letters on Yoga
"The soul or spark is there before the development of an organised vital and mind. The soul is something of the Divine that descends into the evolution as a divine Principle within it to support the evolution of the individual out of the Ignorance into the Light. It develops in the course of the evolution a psychic individual or soul individuality which grows from life to life, using the evolving mind, vital and body as its instruments. It is the soul that is immortal while the rest disintegrates; it passes from life to life carrying its experience in essence and the continuity of the evolution of the individual.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . for the soul is seated within and impervious to the shocks of external events. . . .” *Essays on the Gita
". . . the soul is at first but a spark and then a little flame of godhead burning in the midst of a great darkness; for the most part it is veiled in its inner sanctum and to reveal itself it has to call on the mind, the life-force and the physical consciousness and persuade them, as best they can, to express it; ordinarily, it succeeds at most in suffusing their outwardness with its inner light and modifying with its purifying fineness their dark obscurities or their coarser mixture. Even when there is a formed psychic being able to express itself with some directness in life, it is still in all but a few a smaller portion of the being — ‘no bigger in the mass of the body than the thumb of a man" was the image used by the ancient seers — and it is not always able to prevail against the obscurity or ignorant smallness of the physical consciousness, the mistaken surenesses of the mind or the arrogance and vehemence of the vital nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
". . . the soul is an eternal portion of the Supreme and not a fraction of Nature.” The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” The Life Divine
*Soul, soul"s, Soul"s, souls, soulless, soul-bridals, soul-change, soul-force, Soul-Forces, soul-ground, soul-joy, soul-nature, soul-range, soul-ray, soul-scapes, soul-scene, soul-sense, soul-severance, soul-sight, soul-slaying, soul-space,, soul-spaces, soul-strength, soul-stuff, soul-truth, soul-vision, soul-wings, world-soul, World-Soul.
sower ::: one who sows seed. Also fig.
specialist ::: one who devotes himself or herself to one subject or to one particular branch of a subject or pursuit.
speculator ::: one who risks losses in a commercial venture for the possibility of considerable gains.
spokesman ::: a man who speaks on behalf of another or others. spokesmen.
sponsors ::: those who vouch for or are responsible for a person or thing.
spy ::: one who secretly keeps watch on another or others.
Sri Aurobindo: "And though this Spirit of the universe, this One who is all, seems to be turning us on the wheel of the world as if mounted on a machine by the force of Maya, shaping us in our ignorance as the potter shapes a pot, as the weaver a fabric, by some skilful mechanical principle, yet is this spirit our own greatest self and it is according to the real idea, the truth of ourselves, that which is growing in us and finding always new and more adequate forms in birth after birth, in our animal and human and divine life, in that which we were, that which we are, that which we shall be, — it is in accordance with this inner soul-truth that, as our opened eyes will discover, we are progressively shaped by this spirit within us in its all-wise omnipotence.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of the Light, so there are Powers of Ignorance and tenebrous Forces of the Darkness whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Inconscience. As there are Forces of Truth, so there are Forces that live by the Falsehood and support it and work for its victory; as there are powers whose life is intimately bound up with the existence, the idea and the impulse of Good, so there are Forces whose life is bound up with the existence and the idea and the impulse of Evil. It is this truth of the cosmic Invisible that was symbolised in the ancient belief of a struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil for the possession of the world and the government of the life of man; — this was the significance of the contest between the Vedic Gods and their opponents, sons of Darkness and Division, figured in a later tradition as Titan and Giant and Demon, Asura, Rakshasa, Pisacha; the same tradition is found in the Zoroastrian Double Principle and the later Semitic opposition of God and his Angels on the one side and Satan and his hosts on the other, — invisible Personalities and Powers that draw man to the divine Light and Truth and Good or lure him into subjection to the undivine principle of Darkness and Falsehood and Evil.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Whoever the recipient, whatever the gift, it is the Supreme, the Eternal in things, who receives and accepts it, even if it be rejected or ignored by the immediate recipient. For the Supreme who transcends the universe, is yet here too, however veiled, in us and in the world and in its happenings; he is there as the omniscient Witness and Receiver of all our works and their secret Master.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Who is the superman? He who can rise above this matter-regarding broken mental human unit and possess himself universalised and deified in a divine force, a divine love and joy and a divine knowledge.” *The Hour of God
Sri Aurobindo: "By immortality we mean the absolute life of the soul as opposed to the transient and mutable life in the body which it assumes by birth and death and rebirth and superior also to its life as the mere mental being who dwells in the world subjected helplessly to this law of death and birth or seems at least by his ignorance to be subjected to this and to other laws of the lower Nature.” *The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g., the Divine; there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Finally, we have the goddess Dakshina who may well be a female form of Daksha, himself a god and afterwards in the Purana one of the Prajapatis, the original progenitors, — we have Dakshina associated with the manifestation of knowledge and sometimes almost identified with Usha, the divine Dawn, who is the bringer of illumination. I shall suggest that Dakshina like the more famous Ila, Saraswati and Sarama, is one of four goddesses representing the four faculties of the Ritam or Truth-consciousness, — Ila representing truth-vision or revelation, Saraswati truth-audition, inspiration, the divine word, Sarama intuition, Dakshina the separative intuitional discrimination.” *The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . for each individual is in himself the Eternal who has assumed name and form and supports through him the experiences of life turning on an ever-circling wheel of birth in the manifestation. The wheel is kept in motion by the desire of the individual, which becomes the effective cause of rebirth and by the mind"s turning away from the knowledge of the eternal self to the preoccupations of the temporal becoming.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” *The Human Cycle etc.
Sri Aurobindo: "If this higher buddhi {{understanding in the profoundest sense] could act pure of the interference of these lower members, it would give pure forms of the truth; observation would be dominated or replaced by a vision which could see without subservient dependence on the testimony of the sense-mind and senses; imagination would give place to the self-assured inspiration of the truth, reasoning to the spontaneous discernment of relations and conclusion from reasoning to an intuition containing in itself those relations and not building laboriously upon them, judgment to a thought-vision in whose light the truth would stand revealed without the mask which it now wears and which our intellectual judgment has to penetrate; while memory too would take upon itself that larger sense given to it in Greek thought and be no longer a paltry selection from the store gained by the individual in his present life, but rather the all-recording knowledge which secretly holds and constantly gives from itself everything that we now seem painfully to acquire but really in this sense remember, a knowledge which includes the future(1) no less than the past. ::: Footnote: In this sense the power of prophecy has been aptly called a memory of the future.]” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "In considering the action of the Infinite we have to avoid the error of the disciple who thought of himself as the Brahman, refused to obey the warning of the elephant-driver to budge ::: from the narrow path and was taken up by the elephant"s trunk and removed out of the way; ‘You are no doubt the Brahman," said the master to his bewildered disciple, ‘but why did you not obey the driver Brahman and get out of the path of the elephant Brahman?"” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "In other words, that which has thrown itself out into forms is a triune Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, whose consciousness is in its nature a creative or rather a self-expressive Force capable of infinite variation in phenomenon and form of its self-conscious being and endlessly enjoying the delight of that variation.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance — ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "It could be affirmed as a consequence that there is one all-pervading Life or dynamic energy — the material aspect being only its outermost movement — that creates all these forms of the physical universe, Life imperishable and eternal which, even if the whole figure of the universe were quite abolished, would itself still go on existing and be capable of producing a new universe in its place, must indeed, unless it be held back in a state of rest by some higher Power or hold itself back, inevitably go on creating. In that case Life is nothing else than the Force that builds and maintains and destroys forms in the world; it is Life that manifests itself in the form of the earth as much as in the plant that grows upon the earth and the animals that support their existence by devouring the life-force of the plant or of each other. All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter. It might for that purpose hide life-process in physical process before it emerges as submental sensitivity and mentalised vitality, but still it would be throughout the same creative Life-principle.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: " Love? It is not Love who meets the burdened great and governs the fate of men! Nor is it Pain. Time also does not do these things — it only provides the field and movement of events. If I had wanted to give a name, I would have done it, but it has purposely to be left nameless because it is indefinable. He may use Love or Pain or Time or any of these powers but is not any of them. You can call him the Master of the Evolution, if you like. Letters of Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: "Masters of the Truth-Light who make the Truth grow by the Truth.” Rig Veda. *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . memory is only a process of consciousness, a utility; it cannot be the substance of being or the whole of our personality: it is simply one of the workings of consciousness as radiation is one of the workings of Light.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: " Mental intelligence thinks out because it is merely a reflecting force of consciousness which does not know, but seeks to know; it follows in Time step by step the working of a knowledge higher than itself, a knowledge that exists always, one and whole, that holds Time in its grasp, that sees past, present and future in a single regard.: The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Of course you can [do yoga without being great]. There is no need of being great. On the contrary humility is the first necessity, for one who has ego and pride cannot realise the Highest.” *Letters on Yoga
::: Sri Aurobindo: "Spiritual force has its own concreteness; it can take a form (like a stream, for instance) of which one is aware and can send it quite concretely on whatever object one chooses. This is a statement of fact about the power inherent in spiritual consciousness. But there is also such a thing as a willed use of any subtle force — it may be spiritual, mental or vital — to secure a particular result at some point in the world. Just as there are waves of unseen physical forces (cosmic waves etc.) or currents of electricity, so there are mind-waves, thought-currents, waves of emotion, — for example, anger, sorrow, etc., — which go out and affect others without their knowing whence they come or that they come at all, they only feel the result. One who has the occult or inner senses awake can feel them coming and invading him.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "That (‘to blend and blur shades owing to technical exigencies"] might be all right for mental poetry — it won"t do for what I am trying to create — in that, one word won"t do for the other. Even in mental poetry I consider it an inferior method. ‘Gleam" and ‘glow" are two quite different things and the poet who uses them indifferently has constantly got his eye upon words rather than upon the object.” Letters on Savitri *
Sri Aurobindo: "the black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe; its energies unroll the flux of things, its obscure intimations seem to be the starting-point of consciousness itself and the source of all life-impulse.” The Life Divine ::: **Unused, guarded beneath Night"s dragon paws,**
Sri Aurobindo: "The cosmic consciousness is that of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature with all the beings and forces within it. All that is as much conscious as a whole as the individual separately is, though in a different way. The consciousness of the individual is part of this, but a part feeling itself as a separate being. Yet all the time most of what he is comes into him from the cosmic consciousness. But there is a wall of separative ignorance between. Once it breaks down he becomes aware of the cosmic Self, of the consciousness of the cosmic Nature, of the forces playing in it, etc. He feels all that as he now feels physical things and impacts. He finds it all to be one with his larger or universal self.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit"s omnipotence.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The hostile forces are those whose very raison d"être is revolt against the Divine, against the Light and Truth and enmity to the Divine Work.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Mask is mentioned not twice but four times in this opening passage and it is purposely done to keep up the central connection of the idea running through the whole. The ambassadors wear this grey Mask, so your criticism cannot stand since there is no separate mask coming as part of a new idea but a very pointed return to the principal note indicating the identity of the influence throughout. It is not a random recurrence but a purposeful touch carrying a psychological meaning.” — 1948 Letters on Savitri*
Sri Aurobindo: "The omniscient is not born, nor dies, nor has he come into being from anywhere, nor is he anyone. He is unborn, he is constant and eternal, he is the Ancient of Days who is not slain in the slaying of the body. . . .” *The Upanishads
*Sri Aurobindo: "There are some who often or almost invariably have the contact whenever they worship, the Deity may become living to them in the picture or other image they worship, may move and act through it; others may feel him always present, outwardly, subtle-physically, abiding with them where they live or in the very room, but sometimes this is only for a period. Or they may feel the Presence with them, see it frequently in a body (but not materially except sometimes), feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly — that is also a kind of milana. The greatest milana is one in which one is constantly aware of the Deity abiding in oneself, in everything in the world, holding all the world in him, identical with existence and yet supremely beyond the world — but in the world too one sees, hears, feels nothing but him, so that the very senses bear witness to him alone — . . . .” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "[There is] a Supernature behind all that is apparent, a supreme power of the Spirit in Time and beyond Time, in Space and beyond Space, a conscious Power of the Self who by her becomes all becomings, of the Absolute who by her manifests all relativities.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no ignorance that is not part of the Cosmic Ignorance, only in the individual it becomes a limited formation and movement, while the Cosmic Ignorance is the whole movement of world consciousness separated from the supreme Truth and acting in an inferior motion in which the Truth is perverted, diminished, mixed and clouded with falsehood and error.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The robbers are as in the Veda vital beings who come to steal away the good condition or else to steal the gains of the sadhana.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "What we call unconsciousness is simply other-consciousness; it is the going in of this surface wave of our mental awareness of outer objects into our subliminal self-awareness and into our awareness too of other planes of existence. We are really no more unconscious when we are asleep or stunned or drugged or ``dead"" or in any other state, than when we are plunged in inner thought oblivious of our physical selves and our surroundings. For anyone who has advanced even a little way in Yoga, this is a most elementary proposition and one which offers no difficulty whatever to the thought because it is proved at every point by experience.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "When there is some lowering or diminution of the consciousness or some impairing of it at one place or another, the Adversary — or the Censor — who is always on the watch presses with all his might wherever there is a weak point lying covered from your own view, and suddenly a wrong movement leaps up with unexpected force. Become conscious and cast out the possibility of its renewal, that is all that is to be done.” Letters on Yoga
star ::: 1. Any of the celestial bodies visible at night from Earth as relatively stationary, usually twinkling points of light. 2. One who is prominent or distinguished in some way. 3. Fig. A guiding light. 4. A celestial body, esp. a planet or a star, supposed to influence events, personalities, etc. stars, stars", star-carved, star-defended, star-entangled, star-field, star-gemmed, star-jewelled, star-led, star-lost, star-lustrous, star-white.
stars ::: Sri Aurobindo: "But it does not follow that the stars rule our destiny; the stars merely record a destiny that has been already formed, they are a hieroglyph, not a Force, — or if their action constitutes a force, it is a transmitting energy, not an originating Power. Someone is there who has determined or something is there which is Fate, let us say; the stars are only indicators.” Letters on Yoga
starters ::: participants who start in a game or race.
steward ::: one who manages another"s property or financial affairs; one who administers anything as the agent of another or others.
stoic ::: adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity. n. 2. A member or adherent of the Stoic school of philosophy. Stoic"s.
student ::: one who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.)
subconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. No, subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” *The Synthesis of Yoga.
"The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.
Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature.” Letters on Yoga
"That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” *The Life Divine
"The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeats persistently or whenever it can old suppressed reactions, reflexes, mental, vital or physical responses. It must be trained by a still more persistent insistence of the higher parts of the being to give up its old responses and take on the new and true ones.” Letters on Yoga
"About the subconscient — it is the sub-mental base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements that are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed in it, it keeps. If one impresses the right movement in it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also.” Letters on Yoga
"The sub-conscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.” Letters on Yoga
"The subconscient is the support of habitual action — it can support good habits as well as bad.” Letters on Yoga
"For the subconscient is the Inconscient in the process of becoming conscious; it is a support and even a root of our inferior parts of being and their movements.” The Life Divine *subconscient"s.
subconscious ::: not wholly conscious; partially or imperfectly conscious; existing or operating in the mind beneath or beyond consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo: "The subconscious in us is the extreme border of our secret inner existence where it meets the Inconscient, it is a degree of our being in which the Inconscient struggles into a half consciousness. . . .” The Life Divine
subject ::: n. 1. One who is under the rule of another or others, especially one who owes allegiance to a government or ruler. subject"s, subjects. *adj. 2. Fig.* Being in a position or in circumstances that place one under the power or authority of something or someone.
subtle vision ("s) ::: Sri Aurobindo: " This power of vision is sometimes inborn and habitual even without any effort of development, sometimes it wakes up of itself and becomes abundant or needs only a little practice to develop; it is not necessarily a sign of spiritual attainment, but usually when by practice of yoga one begins to go inside or live within, the power of subtle vision awakes to a greater or less extent; . . . .”*Letters on Yoga
"It is not necessary to have the mind quiet in order to see the lights — that depends only on the opening of the subtle vision in the centre which is in the forehead between the eyebrows. Many people get that as soon as they start sadhana. It can even be developed by effort and concentration without sadhana by some who have it to a small extent as an inborn faculty.” Letters on Yoga
"When the centres begin to open, inner experiences such as the seeing of light or images through the subtle vision in the forehead centre or psychic experiences and perceptions in the heart, become frequent — gradually one becomes aware of one"s inner being as separate from the outer, and what can be called a yogic consciousness with all its deeper movements develops in the place of the ordinary superficial mental and vital movements.” Letters on Yoga
successor ::: one who succeeds or follows another.
sufferer ::: one who suffers.
suffering ::: n. 1. The condition of one who suffers; the bearing of pain or distress. 2. Pain, misery, or loss experienced by a person who suffers. adj. 3. Troubled by pain or loss. suffering"s, sufferings.
summoner ::: one who calls another to a place. Often fig. Summoner"s.
sum ::: n. 1. The full amount or whole. 2. An indefinite amount or quantity, esp. of money. 3. Essence; epitome. v. 4. To add or form a total of something. 5. sum up. To make an estimate of something; summarize.
"Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
supernumerary ::: a person who appears in a play or film without speaking lines or as part of a crowd; a walk-on; an extra.
survivor ::: one who outlives another or others.
suzerain ::: a feudal lord to whom fealty was due.
system ::: 1. A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. 2. An organized and coordinated method, scheme, or plan; a procedure.
Temporary possession of people by vital beings who sometimes pretend to be departed relatives, etc.
tender ::: one who attends to or takes charge of someone or something.
term ::: 1. A limited period of time. 2. A member or item of a mathematical expression; each of the things constituting a series; an element of any complex whole. 3. A boundary or extreme limit. 4. A word or expression used for some particular thing; a word or expression used for some particular thing. terms.
term-posts ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo from terminus,** **a boundary post or stone; historically, a statue or bust of the god Terminus, the deity who presided over boundaries or landmarks in ancient Roman mythology.
"That is the way things come, only one does not notice. Thoughts, ideas, happy inventions etc., etc., are always wandering about (in thought-waves or otherwise), seeking a mind that may embody them. One mind takes, looks, rejects — another takes, looks, accepts. Two different minds catch the same thought-form or thought-wave, but the mental activities being different, make different results out of them. Or it comes to one and he does nothing, then it walks off saying, ‘O this unready animal!" and goes to another who promptly welcomes it and it settles into expression with a joyous bubble of inspiration, illumination or enthusiasm of original discovery or creation and the recipient cries proudly, ‘I, I have done this". Ego, sir! ego! You are the recipient, the conditioning medium, if you like — nothing more.” Letters on Yoga
The Apsaras then are the divine Hetairae of Paradise, beautiful singers and actresses whose beauty and art relieve the arduous and world-long struggle of the Gods against the forces that tend towards disruption by the Titans who would restore Matter to its original atomic condition or of dissolution by the sages and hermits who would make phenomena dissolve prematurely into the One who is above phenomena. They rose from the Ocean, says Valmiki, seeking who should choose them as brides, but neither the Gods nor the Titans accepted them, therefore are they said to be common or universal. The Harmony of Virtue
"The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — as did Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross," or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita
"The cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one"s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one"s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one"s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces — for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness — and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in ::: —the nature.” Letters on Yoga*
"The culmination of the soul"s constant touch with the Supreme is that self-giving which we call surrender to the divine Will and immergence of the separated ego in the One who is all.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Divine Force concealed in the subconscient is that which has originated and built up the worlds. At the other end in the superconscient it reveals itself as the Divine Being, Lord and Knower who has manifested Himself out of the Brahman.” The Upanishads ::: See also divine Force for additional definitions.
"The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita*
"The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita
::: "The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that being omniscient his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual"s desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important.
``The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment to fruit and recompense and to labour only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. For you must deeply feel that the fruits belong not to you but to the Master of the world. Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. The outcome of your action is determined by his will alone and whatever it be, good or evil fortune, success or failure, it is turned by him to the accomplishment of his world purpose.” Essays on the Gita*
"The freedom of the Gita is that of the freeman, the true freedom of the birth into the higher nature, self-existent in its divinity. Whatever he does and however he lives, the free soul lives in the Divine; he is the privileged child of the mansion, bâlavat, who cannot err or fall because all he is and does is full of the Perfect, the All-blissful, the All-loving, the All-beautiful. The kingdom which he enjoys, râjyam samrddham, is a sweet and happy dominion of which it may be said, in the pregnant phrase of the Greek thinker, ``The kingdom is of the child."" Essays on the Gita
"The Gita answers by presenting the Supreme as something greater even than the immutable Self, more comprehensive, one who is at once this Self and the Master of works in Nature. But he directs the works of Nature with the eternal calm, the equality, the superiority to works and personality which belong to the immutable. This, we may say, is the poise of being from which he directs works, and by growing into this we are growing into his being and into the poise of divine works. From this he goes forth as the Will and Power of his being in Nature, manifests himself in all existences, is born as Man in the world, is there in the heart of all men, reveals himself as the Avatar, the divine birth in man; and as man grows into his being, it is into the divine birth that he grows.” Essays on the Gita
"The Gods are the great undying Powers and immortal Personalities who consciously inform, constitute, preside over the subjective and objective forces of the cosmos.” Essays on the Gita
"The gods are the powers of Light, the children of Infinity, forms and personalities of the one Godhead who by their help and by their growth and human workings in man raise him to the truth and the immortality.” The Secret of the Veda
"The Gods, who in their highest secret entity are powers of this Supermind, born of it, seated in it as in their proper home, are in their knowledge truth-conscious'' and in their action possessed of theseer-will"".” The Life Divine
::: "The greater the destruction, the freer the chances of creation; but the destruction is often long, slow and oppressive, the creation tardy in its coming or interrupted in its triumph. The night returns again and again and the day lingers or seems even to have been a false dawning. Despair not therefore, but watch and work. Those who hope violently, despair swiftly: neither hope nor fear, but be sure of God"s purpose and thy will to accomplish.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The heart is the centre of the being and commands the rest, as the psychic being or caitya purusa is there. It is only in that sense that all flows from it, for it is the psychic being who each time creates a new mind, vital and body for himself.” *Letters on Yoga
"The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective, and it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly according to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"The individual is a centre of the whole universal consciousness; . . . .” The Life Divine
The Ineffable: *Sri Aurobindo: "It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence, — even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"The Jivatman is for me the Unborn who presides over the individual being and its developments, associated with it but above it and them and who by the very nature of his existence knows himself as universal and transcendent no less than individual and feels the Divine to be his origin, the truth of his being, the master of his nature, the very stuff of his existence.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The Lord of Beings is that which is conscious in the conscious being, but he is also the Conscious in inconscient things, the One who is master and in control of the many that are passive in the hands of Force-Nature. He is the Timeless and Time; he is Space and all that is in Space; he is Causality and the cause and the effect: He is the thinker and his thought, the warrior and his courage, the gambler and his dice-throw. All realities and all aspects and all semblances are the Brahman; Brahman is the Absolute, the transcendent and incommunicable, the Supracosmic Existence that sustains the cosmos, the Cosmic Self that upholds all beings, but It is too the self of each individual: the soul or psychic entity is an eternal portion of the Ishwara; it is his supreme Nature or Consciousness-Force that has become the living being in a world of living beings. The Brahman alone is, and because of It all are, for all are the Brahman; this Reality is the reality of everything that we see in Self and Nature. Brahman, the Ishwara, is all this by his Yoga-Maya, by the power of his Consciousness-Force put out in self-manifestation: he is the Conscious Being, Soul, Spirit, Purusha, and it is by his Nature, the force of his conscious self-existence that he is all things; he is the Ishwara, the omniscient and omnipotent All-ruler, and it is by his Shakti, his conscious Power, that he manifests himself in Time and governs the universe.” The Life Divine*
"The mental or vital demigod, the Asura, Rakshasa and Pishacha, — Titan, vital giant and demon, — are superhuman in the pitch and force and movement and in the make of their characteristic nature, but these are not divine and those not supremely divine, for they live in a greater mind power or life power only, but they do not live in the supreme Truth, and only the supreme Truth is divine. Only those who live in a supreme Truth consciousness and embody it are inwardly made or else remade in the Divine image.” Essays Divine and Human
"The message of the Gita is the gospel of the Divinity in man who by force of an increasing union unfolds himself out of the veil of the lower Nature, reveals to the human soul his cosmic spirit, reveals his absolute transcendences, reveals himself in man and in all beings. The potential outcome here of this union, this divine Yoga, man growing towards the Godhead, the Godhead manifest in the human soul and to the inner human vision, is our liberation from limited ego and our elevation to the higher nature of a divine humanity.” Essays on the Gita ::: *Divinity"s.
The Mother : "An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.” Works of the Mother, "On Thoughts and Aphorisms” Vol.10
::: The Mother: "Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one"s being and in all that constitutes the manifested world.
The Mother: "Surrender is the decision taken to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine. Without this decision nothing is at all possible; if you do not surrender, the Yoga is entirely out of the question. Everything else comes naturally after it, for the whole process starts with surrender.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3.
The Mother: ‘There are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the other two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical body – they have been intimately associated with my life. The story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount. . . the Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I don"t know what has become of him. As for the other, the Lord of Falsehood, the one who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted but he found it disgusting!
::: The Mother: "True art means the expression of beauty in the material world. In a world wholly converted, that is to say, expressing integrally the divine reality, art must serve as the revealer and teacher of this divine beauty in life.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
theoricians ::: those who hold theories; theorists.
::: "The psycho-analysis of Freud is the last thing that one should associate with yoga. It takes up a certain part, the darkest, the most perilous, the unhealthiest part of the nature, the lower vital subconscious layer, isolates some of its most morbid phenomena and attributes to it and them an action out of all proportion to its true role in the nature. Modern psychology is an infant science, at once rash, fumbling and crude. As in all infant sciences, the universal habit of the human mind — to take a partial or local truth, generalise it unduly and try to explain a whole field of Nature in its narrow terms — runs riot here. Moreover, the exaggeration of the importance of suppressed sexual complexes is a dangerous falsehood and it can have a nasty influence and tend to make the mind and vital more and not less fundamentally impure than before.
"The reality of the Hostiles and the nature of their role and trend of their endeavour cannot be doubted by any one who has had his inner vision unsealed and made their unpleasant acquaintance.” Letters on Savitri
"There is always the personal and the impersonal side of the Divine and the Truth and it is a mistake to think the impersonal alone to be true or important, for that leads to a void incompleteness in part of the being, while only one side is given satisfaction. Impersonality belongs to the intellectual mind and the static self, personality to the soul and heart and dynamic being. Those who disregard the personal Divine ignore something which is profound and essential.” Letters on Yoga ::: Impersonal"s.
"There is no such thing as death, for it is the body that dies and the body is not the man. That which really is, cannot go out of existence, though it may change the forms through which it appears, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The soul is and cannot cease to be. This opposition of is and is not, this balance of being and becoming which is the mind"s view of existence, finds its end in the realisation of the soul as the one imperishable self by whom all this universe has been extended. Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body, is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. It casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes worn-out raiment for new; and what is there in this to grieve at and recoil and shrink? This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, sempiternal; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. Who can slay the immortal spirit? Weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is for ever and for ever. Not manifested like the body, but greater than all manifestation, not to be analysed by the thought, but greater than all mind, not capable of change and modification like the life and its organs and their objects, but beyond the changes of mind and life and body, it is yet the Reality which all these strive to figure.” Essays on the Gita
"There results an integral vision of the Divine Existent at once as the transcendent Reality, supracosmic origin of cosmos, as the impersonal Self of all things, calm continent of the cosmos, and as the immanent Divinity in all beings, personalities, objects, powers and qualities, the Immanent who is the constituent self, the effective nature and the inward and outward becoming of all existences.” Essays on the Gita*
The Seer, the Thinker, the Self-existent who becomes everywhere has ordered perfectly all things from years sempiternal. Isha Upanishad. (1) The Life Divine
"These lights and visions are not hallucinations. They indicate an opening of the inner vision whose centre is in the forehead between the eyebrows.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The silent mind is a result of yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent. . . . The thinkers and philosophers do not have the silent mind. It is the active mind they have; only, of course, they concentrate, so the common incoherent mentalising stops and the thoughts that rise or enter and shape themselves are coherently restricted to the subject or activity in hand. But that is quite a different matter from the whole mind falling silent.” Letters on Yoga
"The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
"The subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges.” Letters on Yoga
"The sunlit path can be followed by those who are able to practise surrender, first a central surrender and afterwards a more complete self-giving in all the parts of the being. If they can achieve and preserve the attitude of the central surrender, if they can rely wholly on the Divine and accept cheerfully whatever comes to them from the Divine, then their path becomes sunlit and may even be straightforward and easy.” Letters on Yoga*
::: "The third step is to know the Divine Being who is at once our supreme transcendent Self, the Cosmic Being, foundation of our universality, and the Divinity within of which our psychic being, the true evolving individual in our nature, is a portion, a spark, a flame growing into the eternal Fire from which it was lit and of which it is the witness ever living within us and the conscious instrument of its light and power and joy and beauty.” *The Life Divine
". . . the Titan, who lives in his own inordinately magnified shadow, mistakes ego for the self and spirit and tries to impose his fragmentary personality as the one dominant existence upon all his surroundings.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "The use of the word Power has already been explained — it can be applied to whatever or whoever exercises a conscious power in the cosmic field and has authority over the world-movement or some movement in it.” Letters on Yoga
"The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, — therefore it is called the kundalinî sakti, — in the lowest of the chakras, in the mûlâdhâra. When by Pranayama the division between the upper and lower prana currents in the body is dissolved, this Kundalini is struck and awakened, it uncoils itself and begins to rise upward like a fiery serpent breaking open each lotus as it ascends until the Shakti meets the Purusha in the brahmarandhra in a deep samadhi of union.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The whole nature of man is to become more than himself. He was the man-animal, he has become more than the animal man. He is the thinker, the craftsman, the seeker after beauty. He shall be more than the thinker, he shall be the seer of knowledge; he shall be more than the craftsman, he shall be the creator and master of his creation; he shall be more than the seeker of beauty, for he shall enjoy all beauty and all delight. Physical he seeks for this immortal substance; vital he seeks after immortal life and the infinite power of his being; mental and partial in knowledge, he seeks after the whole light and the utter vision.
"The will of self-giving forces away by its power the veil between God and man; it annuls every error and annihilates every obstacle. Those who aspire in their human strength by effort of knowledge or effort of virtue or effort of laborious self-discipline, grow with much anxious difficulty towards the Eternal; but when the soul gives up its ego and its works to the Divine, God himself comes to us and takes up our burden.” Essays on the Gita
"This Godhead is one in all things that are, the self who lives in all and the self in whom all live and move; therefore man has to discover his spiritual unity with all creatures, to see all in the self and the self in all beings, even to see all things and creatures as himself, âtmaupamyena sarvatra, and accordingly think, feel and act in all his mind, will and living. This Godhead is the origin of all that is here or elsewhere and by his Nature he has become all these innumerable existences, abhût sarvâni bhûtâni; therefore man has to see and adore the One in all things animate and inanimate, to worship the manifestation in sun and star and flower, in man and every living creature, in the forms and forces, qualities and powers of Nature, vâsudevah sarvam iti.” Essays on the Gita ::: *godhead, godheads, godhead"s.
"This integral knowledge is the knowledge of the Divine present in the individual; it is the entire experience of the Lord secret in the heart of man, revealed now as the supreme Self of his existence, the Sun of all his illumined consciousness, the Master and Power of all his works, the divine Fountain of all his soul"s love and delight, the Lover and Beloved of his worship and adoration. It is the knowledge too of the Divine extended in the universe, of the Eternal from whom all proceeds and in whom all lives and has its being, of the Self and Spirit of the cosmos, of Vasudeva who has become all this that is, of the Lord of cosmic existence who reigns over the works of Nature. It is the knowledge of the divine Purusha luminous in his transcendent eternity, the form of whose being escapes from the thought of the mind but not from its silence; it is the entire living experience of him as absolute Self, supreme Brahman, supreme Soul, supreme Godhead: for that seemingly incommunicable Absolute is at the same time and even in that highest status the originating Spirit of the cosmic action and Lord of all these existences.” Essays on the Gita*
::: "This is the omniscient who knows the law of our being and is sufficient to his works; let us build the song of his truth by our thought and make it as if a chariot on which he shall mount. When he dwells with us, then a happy wisdom becomes ours. With him for friend we cannot come to harm.” The Secret of the Veda
"This secret Self in all beings is not apparent, but it is seen by means of the supreme reason, the subtle, by those who have the subtle vision. — Katha Upanishad. *The Life Divine
"This Self is fourfold, — the Self of Waking who has the outer intelligence and enjoys external things, is its first part; the Self of Dream who has the inner intelligence and enjoys things subtle, is its second part; the Self of Sleep, unified, a massed intelligence, blissful and enjoying bliss, is the third part… the lord of all, the omniscient, the inner Control. That which is unseen, indefinable, self-evident in its one selfhood, is the fourth part: this is the Self, this is that which has to be known.” Mandukya Upanishad. (5) The Life Divine*
"This supreme Soul and Self is the Seer, the Ancient of Days and in his eternal self-vision and wisdom the Master and Ruler of all existence who sets in their place in his being all things that are, . . . .” Essays on the Gita
those who assist, guide, wait upon, accompany, give service or follow another to contribute to the fulfilment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose; subordinate companions.
"Though man is infinitely greater than the plant or the animal, he is not perfect in his own nature like the plant and the animal. This imperfection is not a thing to be at all deplored, but rather a privilege and a promise, for it opens out to us an immense vista of self-development and self-exceeding. Man at his highest is a half-god who has risen up out of the animal Nature and is splendidly abnormal in it, but the thing which he has started out to be, the whole god, is something so much greater than what he is that it seems to him as abnormal to himself as he is to the animal. This means a great and arduous labour of growth before him, but also a splendid crown of his race and his victory. A kingdom is offered to him beside which his present triumphs in the realms of mind or over external Nature will appear only as a rough hint and a poor beginning. The Human Cycle
throne ::: 1. A chair occupied by an exalted personage, such as a sovereign or bishop, on state or ceremonial occasions, often situated on a dais and sometimes having a canopy and ornate decoration. 2. The position and power of an exalted person (a sovereign or bishop) who is entitled to sit in a chair of state on ceremonial occasions. Throne, thrones, lotus-throne. v. 3. To sit on the throne as a ruler. thrones, throned.
"Time is a field of circumstances and forces meeting and working out a resultant progression whose course it measures. To the ego it is a tyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort is personal, Time appears as a resistance, for it presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the personal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and a condition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument.” The Synthesis of Yoga
" To become ourselves by exceeding ourselves, — so we may turn the inspired phrases of a half-blind seer who knew not the self of which he spoke, — is the difficult and dangerous necessity, the cross surmounted by an invisible crown which is imposed on us, the riddle of the true nature of his being proposed to man by the dark Sphinx of the Inconscience below and from within and above by the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom confronting him as an inscrutable divine Maya. To exceed ego and be our true self, to be aware of our real being, to possess it, to possess a real delight of being, is therefore the ultimate meaning of our life here; it is the concealed sense of our individual and terrestrial existence.” The Life Divine*
toiler ::: one who works strenuously.
"To live and act under control or according to a standard of what is right — not to allow the vital or the physical to do whatever they like and not to let the mind run about according to its fancy without truth or order. Also to obey those who ought to be obeyed.” Letters on Yoga
"To me, for instance, consciousness is the very stuff of existence and I can feel it everywhere enveloping and penetrating the stone as much as man or the animal. A movement, a flow of consciousness is not to me an image but a fact. If I wrote "His anger climbed against me in a stream", it would be to the general reader a mere image, not something that was felt by me in a sensible experience; yet I would only be describing in exact terms what actually happened once, a stream of anger, a sensible and violent current of it rising up from downstairs and rushing upon me as I sat in the veranda of the Guest-House, the truth of it being confirmed afterwards by the confession of the person who had the movement. This is only one instance, but all that is spiritual or psychological in Savitri is of that character. What is to be done under these circumstances? The mystical poet can only describe what he has felt, seen in himself or others or in the world just as he has felt or seen it or experienced through exact vision, close contact or identity and leave it to the general reader to understand or not understand or misunderstand according to his capacity. A new kind of poetry demands a new mentality in the recipient as well as in the writer.” Letters on Savitri
torch-bearer ::: one who leads or inspires, imparting knowledge, truth, inspiration, etc. to others. **torch-bearers.**
torturer ::: one who subjects (a person or an animal) to torture. torturers
::: "To what gods shall the sacrifice be offered? Who shall be invoked to manifest and protect in the human being this increasing godhead?
traders ::: those who engage in trade; dealers; merchants.
trafficker ::: one who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money. traffickers.
transcendent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A Transcendent who is beyond all world and all Nature and yet possesses the world and its nature, who has descended with something of himself into it and is shaping it into that which as yet it is not, is the Source of our being, the Source of our works and their Master. But the seat of the Transcendent Consciousness is above in an absoluteness of divine Existence — and there too is the absolute Power, Truth, Bliss of the Eternal — of which our mentality can form no conception and of which even our greatest spiritual experience is only a diminished reflection in the spiritualised mind and heart, a faint shadow, a thin derivate. Yet proceeding from it there is a sort of golden corona of Light, Power, Bliss and Truth — a divine Truth-Consciousness as the ancient mystics called it, a Supermind, a Gnosis, with which this world of a lesser consciousness proceeding by Ignorance is in secret relation and which alone maintains it and prevents it from falling into a disintegrated chaos.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Transcendent, the Universal, the Individual are three powers overarching, underlying and penetrating the whole manifestation; this is the first of the Trinities. In the unfolding of consciousness also, these are the three fundamental terms and none of them can be neglected if we would have the experience of the whole Truth of existence. Out of the individual we wake into a vaster freer cosmic consciousness; but out of the universal too with its complex of forms and powers we must emerge by a still greater self-exceeding into a consciousness without limits that is founded on the Absolute.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"We see then that there are three terms of the one existence, transcendent, universal and individual, and that each of these always contains secretly or overtly the two others. The Transcendent possesses itself always and controls the other two as the basis of its own temporal possibilities; that is the Divine, the eternal all-possessing God-consciousness, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, which informs, embraces, governs all existences. The human being is here on earth the highest power of the third term, the individual, for he alone can work out at its critical turning-point that movement of self-manifestation which appears to us as the involution and evolution of the divine consciousness between the two terms of the Ignorance and the Knowledge.” The Life Divine
The Transcendent
This is what is termed the Adya Shakti; she is the Supreme Consciousness and Power above the universe and it is by her that all the Gods are manifested, and even the supramental Ishwara comes into manifestation through her — the supramental Purushottama of whom the Gods are Powers and Personalities.” Letters on Yoga
**Transcendent"s.**
transfigurers ::: those who transform (something).
treasurer ::: one who is entrusted with or has charge of funds or a treasure.
tribes ::: 1. Units of sociopolitical organizations consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent. 2. Social divisions of a people, esp. of a preliterate people, defined in terms of common descent, territory, culture, etc.
trustee ::: 1. A person (or institution) to whom legal title to property is entrusted to use for another"s benefit 2. One who is responsible for supervising funds, policies, etc. Also fig.
"Truth is a difficult and strenuous conquest. One must be a real warrior to make this conquest, a warrior who fears nothing, neither enemies nor death, for with or against everybody, with or without a body, the struggle continues and will end by Victory.” Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 15.*
tyrant ::: a ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner. tyrants. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.)
unapproachable ::: 1. Not capable of being approached; remote; unreachable; inaccessible. 2. One who, or that which, cannot be approached or equalled. unapproachably.
unbroken ::: 1. Not broken or fractured; intact, whole. 2. Not interrupted or disturbed; continuous.
"We arrive then necessarily at this conclusion that human birth is a term at which the soul must arrive in a long succession of rebirths and that it has had for its previous and preparatory terms in the succession the lower forms of life upon earth; it has passed through the whole chain that life has strung in the physical universe on the basis of the body, the physical principle.” The Life Divine
"We might say then that there are three elements in the totality of our being: there is the submental and the subconscient which appears to us as if it were inconscient, comprising the material basis and a good part of our life and body; there is the subliminal, which comprises the inner being, taken in its entirety of inner mind, inner life, inner physical with the soul or psychic entity supporting them; there is this waking consciousness which the subliminal and the subconscient throw up on the surface, a wave of their secret surge. But even this is not an adequate account of what we are; for there is not only something deep within behind our normal self-awareness, but something also high above it: that too is ourselves, other than our surface mental personality, but not outside our true self; that too is a country of our spirit. For the subliminal proper is no more than the inner being on the level of the Knowledge-Ignorance luminous, powerful and extended indeed beyond the poor conception of our waking mind, but still not the supreme or the whole sense of our being, not its ultimate mystery.” The Life Divine
". . . what is this strongly separative self-experience that we call ego? It is nothing fundamentally real in itself but only a practical constitution of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us. We perceive a formation of mental, physical, vital experience which distinguishes itself from the rest of being, and that is what we think of as ourselves in nature — this individualisation of being in becoming. We then proceed to conceive of ourselves as something which has thus individualised itself and only exists so long as it is individualised, — a temporary or at least a temporal becoming; or else we conceive of ourselves as someone who supports or causes the individualisation, an immortal being perhaps but limited by its individuality. This perception and this conception constitute our ego-sense.” The Life Divine
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assisted, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created.” Letters on Yoga
"When we see with the inner vision and sense and not with the physical eye a tree or other object, what we become aware of is an infinite one Reality constituting the tree or object, pervading its every atom and molecule, forming them out of itself, building the whole nature, process of becoming, operation of indwelling energy; all of these are itself, are this infinite, this Reality: we see it extending indivisibly and uniting all objects so that none is really separate from it or quite separate from other objects. ‘It stands," says the Gita, ‘undivided in beings and yet as if divided." Thus each object is that Infinite and one in essential being with all other objects that are also forms and names, — powers, numens, — of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"Within us, there are two centres of the Purusha, the inner Soul through which he touches us to our awakening; there is the Purusha in the lotus of the heart which opens upward all our powers and the Purusha in the thousand-petalled lotus whence descend through the thought and will, opening the third eye in us, the lightnings of vision and the fire of the divine energy. The bliss existence may come to us through either one of these centres. When the lotus of the heart breaks open, we feel a divine joy, love and peace expanding in us like a flower of light which irradiates the whole being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"Yet in the principle of reason itself there is the assertion of a Transcendence. For reason is in its whole aim and essence the pursuit of Knowledge, the pursuit, that is to say, of Truth by the elimination of error.” *The Life Divine
::: "Yet the highest power and manifestation is only a very partial revelation of the Infinite; even the whole universe is informed by only one degree of his greatness, illumined by one ray of his splendour, glorious with a faint hint of his delight and beauty.” *Essays on the Gita
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1 be to other souls
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NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
45 Anonymous
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1:Who has begun has half done.
~ Horace,#KEYS
2:Be who you said you'd become." ~ Joel Leon, #KEYS
3:Who you are is always right." ~ Ming-Dao Deng, #KEYS
4:He who complains, sins. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
5:Find out who has bound you," said the Master., ~ ?, #KEYS
6:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, #KEYS
7:He listens well who takes notes.
~ Dante Alighieri,#KEYS
8:Who teaches the soul if not God? ~ John of the Cross, #KEYS
9:Before you think good or evil, who are you? ~ Huineng, #KEYS
10:He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman. ~ The Upanishads, #KEYS
11:Know or listen to those who know.
~ Baltasar Gracian,#KEYS
12:by those who let it go. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
13:even more to him who loves. ~ Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, #KEYS
14:The world can never own a man who wants nothing. ~ Wu Hsin, #KEYS
15:Who teaches the soul if not God? ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
16:Who knoweth these things? Who can speak of them? ~ Rig Veda, #KEYS
17:Only one who wanders finds new paths." ~ Norwegian Proverb. , #KEYS
18:One never really knows who one's enemy is.
~ Jurgen Habermas,#KEYS
19:The elect are those who dare; woe to the timid! ~ Eliphas Levi, #KEYS
20:He was a wise man who invented God. ~ Plato, #KEYS
21:He who allows oppression shares the crime. ~ Desiderius Erasmus, #KEYS
22:Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming." ~ David Bowie, #KEYS
23:He who lives in solitude may make his own laws. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
24:Who Am I? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
25:Art is to console those who are broken by life. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
26:He who understands the wise is wise already. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
27:When I look at my room, I see a girl who loves books. ~ John Green, #KEYS
28:A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. ~ Novalis, #KEYS
29:Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
30:Who does not understand should either learn, or be silent ~ John Dee, #KEYS
31:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
32:The man who knows how will always have a job.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
33:A man who governs his passions is master of his world. ~ Saint Dominic, #KEYS
34:Call me whatever you like; I am who I must be.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
35:Only those who do not fight are never wounded. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
36:The Door is open. It is you who keep turning away. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
37:The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
38:There is nothing impossible to him who will try." ~ Alexander the Great, #KEYS
39:Those who are predestined receive the help of an Inner Guide. ~ TM, WM3, #KEYS
40:God loves those who thank Him even in suffering." ~ Saint Arnold Janssen, #KEYS
41:Listen, my friend. He who loves understands. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
42:The solution to your problem is to see who has it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
43:The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
44:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
45:Truly, those who are good people are thankful and grateful. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
46:He who would travel happily must travel light. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, #KEYS
47:Be who you really are and go the whole way ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
48:He buries gold who hides the truth.
~ Pythagoras,#KEYS
49:I love those who do not know how to live for today.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
50:The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
51:Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. ~ Boethius, #KEYS
52:Consider me as one who loves poetry and persimmons. ~ Masaoka Shiki 1867-1902, #KEYS
53:He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
54:He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
55:I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose. ~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, #KEYS
56:But he who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man-follow him." ~ Sufism, #KEYS
57:Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
58:Grant me the sight Lord that I may see Thee who hast been with me always. ~ JB, #KEYS
59:Be the person who gives energy, not the one who takes it away." ~ Bill Campbell, #KEYS
60:I much prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out.
~ Orson Welles,#KEYS
61:The most common form of despair is not being who you are.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
62:Those who the greatest awareness have the greatest nightmares. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
63:A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. ~ William Burroughs, #KEYS
64:For us who strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, ~ be to other souls, #KEYS
65:He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left." ~ Chinese Proverb, #KEYS
66:Is there a single man who can see what the Sage cannot even conceive? ~ Tseu-tse, #KEYS
67:No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
~ Plato,#KEYS
68:Are you a god? ... No. But who would not wish such a thing. - Harbard
~ Vikings,#KEYS
69:A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
70:For he who leaps into the void owes no explanation to those who watch.
~ Godard,#KEYS
71:God who preceded all existence is a refuge. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
72:He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
73:He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.
~ Joseph Joubert,#KEYS
74:He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.46, #KEYS
75:The bravest people are the ones who don't mind looking like cowards. ~ T.H. White, #KEYS
76:Things that are holy are revealed only to men who are holy. ~ Hippocrates, Law, V, #KEYS
77:Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana, #KEYS
78:am its disciple. How many are there alive who have taken in its meaning." ~ Kibir, #KEYS
79:He who can love can be; he who can be can do; he who can do is. ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
80:He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
81:My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #KEYS
82:Tell me what occupies your mind and I will tell you who your God is. ~ Paul Washer, #KEYS
83:Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?" ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
84:He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything." ~ Thomas Carlyle, #KEYS
85:Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. ~ Plautus, #KEYS
86:The most dangerous people are those who have passion but lack wisdom - Haemin Sunim, #KEYS
87:The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. ~ Ayn Rand, #KEYS
88:Give your weakness to one who helps. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
89:he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing. ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
90:Nothing is impossible for one who is attentive. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
91:We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. ~ Saint Clare of Assisi, #KEYS
92:A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. ~ Plato, #KEYS
93:He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.
~ Marquis de Vauvenargues,#KEYS
94:It is the consumers who make poor people rich and rich people poor. ~ Ludwig Von Mises, #KEYS
95:The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
~ Taoist proverb,#KEYS
96:The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision. ~ T. S. Eliot, #KEYS
97:He who is being carried does not realize how far the next town is…" ~ African proverb, #KEYS
98:I am who I am and I have the need to be. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, #KEYS
99:Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out." ~ John Wooden, #KEYS
100:This Agenda... is my gift to those who love me.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
101:We who think we are about to die will laugh at anything. ~ Terry Pratchett, Night Watch, #KEYS
102:He who labours, prays. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
103:Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
104:The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
105:The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
106:Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.' ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, #KEYS
107:A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." ~ Walter Winchell, #KEYS
108:Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
~ Thomas Carlyle,#KEYS
109:Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
110:Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure." ~ 1 John 3:2-3, #KEYS
111:It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
112:The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
113:Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
114:He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
115:He who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
116:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands." ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
117:There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #KEYS
118:Those who love her discover her easily and those that seek her do find her. ~ Book of Wisdom, #KEYS
119:You have to be yourself otherwise people won't know who you are. ~ Saint Catherine of Sweden, #KEYS
120:Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
121:One who has seen the Lord is a changed being. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
122:Those who are not good to others are bad to themselves. ~ Saint Leo the Great, (Died: 461 AD), #KEYS
123:We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses. ~ Alan Perlis, #KEYS
124:He who seeks not the Cross of Christ seeks not the glory of Christ." ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
125:The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." ~ Bennett Cerf, #KEYS
126:Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." ~ T. S. Eliot, #KEYS
127:People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
128:Tomorrow or your next existence,
Who knows which will come first? ~ Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche,#KEYS
129:Beyond the sky where I have set the Sun, is He-Who-Speaks-Not: He knows all. ~ Myths of the Iife, #KEYS
130:If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
131:The ultimate truth of who you are is not 'I am this' or 'I am that', but 'I am'. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
132:He who knows the secret of sound, knows the mystery of the whole universe.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
133:No man is free who is not master of himself.
~ Epictetus, [T5],#KEYS
134:The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it. ~ George Orwell, #KEYS
135:Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
136:Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.
~ Voltaire, [T5],#KEYS
137:He who treads the path of love walks a thousand miles as if it were only one.
~ Japanese Proverb,#KEYS
138:Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." ~ Revelation 7:9-10, #KEYS
139:Who Are You? What do you want? Where Are You Going? Who do you serve and who do you trust? ~ Galen, #KEYS
140:It is not long before those who are obedient in service obtain command. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
141:Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
142:Everyone who can speak the truth, yet speaks it not, will be judged by God… ~ Saint Justin Martyr., #KEYS
143:He is the wisest who seeks God. He is the most successful who has found God. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #KEYS
144:He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
145:He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
146:He who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrine needs. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
147:The biggest coward is a man who awakens a woman's love with no intention of loving her. ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
148:Who are the true philosophers? Those whose passion is to love the truth. ~ Plato, #KEYS
149:Blessed is the man who can love every man equally. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity 1.17, #KEYS
150:For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 10:13, #KEYS
151:He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
152:Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy because of what you have." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
153:Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
~ Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto 3, Verse 9,#KEYS
154:Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he realizes it. ~ Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, #KEYS
155:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
156:He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions. ~ Confucius, #KEYS
157:He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire.
~ Lao Tzu,#KEYS
158:We speak, but it is God who teaches. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
159:A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
160:He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
161:He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
162:It is difficult to fight with an enemy who longs more for battle than for victory. ~ Francesco Petrarca, #KEYS
163:Those who self-righteously value their own contradictions are mighty on this Earth.
~ Peter J Carroll,#KEYS
164:For those who allow their mind to wander here and there, everything will go wrong. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
165:He who has faith has all, and he who lacks it lacks all. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
166:The saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The sage is a man who rids himself of his ego." ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
167:They who have faith will go through. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T0], #KEYS
168:Those who know, don't tell.
Those who tell, don't know. ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching,#KEYS
169:A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
170:Behold, we count them happy who endure. ~ James V. 11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
171:But call Him by what name you will; for to those who know, He is the possessor of all names. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
172:But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 6:17, #KEYS
173:For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be ~ Sappho, #KEYS
174:He who can accept God as his own, does not suffer so intensely from worldly sorrows. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
175:He who has faith has all -- he who lacks faith lacks all. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
176:The Siddha who knows Self does not know the body. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
177:Anyone who truly loves God travels securely.
~ Saint Teresa of Avila,#KEYS
178:He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
179:He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
180:I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Proverbs, 8:17, #KEYS
181:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, #KEYS
182:The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
183:The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
184:Who is there that would refuse anything to others? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
185:He who has faith has all, and he who lacks faith lacks all. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
186:He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver." ~ Thomas a Kempis, #KEYS
187:If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
188:I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart
I asked, 'Who are You?'
He replied, 'You'. ~ Mansur al-Hallaj,#KEYS
189:The dream is for the one who says that he is awake. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
190:The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
191:There is no Guru, no disciple. Realize who you are. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
192:Verily, I say to thee; he who seeks the Eternal, finds Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
193:Do not hate the evil-hearted, the jealous and the selfish. It is they who promote your Mok ~ Swami Sivananda, #KEYS
194:He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. ~ George Orwell, #KEYS
195:Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5], #KEYS
196:Most people who fail in their dream fail not from lack of ability, but from lack of commitment." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
197:No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning #KEYS
198:Only the one who has made his mind die is truly born. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
199:People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, #KEYS
200:Don't listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
201:Mathematics reveals its secrets only to those who approach it with pure love, for its own beauty. ~ Archimedes, #KEYS
202:There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
203:Disgust appears to be triggered by objects or people who possess attributes that signify disease.
~ Wikipedia,#KEYS
204:For others' bliss who lives, he lives indeed. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Translations, Appeal, #KEYS
205:He who holds on to the Lord, even when afflicted by sufferings, will certainly attain to Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
206:There are two ways: ask yourself 'Who am I?' or submit. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
207:Those who seek power feed their ego—the ego, which causes all the suffering in the world. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
208:Thou who art I beyond all I am... ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber 15, The Gnostic Mass, #KEYS
209:Who knoweth these things? Who can speak of them? ~ Rig Veda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
210:A man who prays lives out the mystery of existence, and a man who does not pray scarcely exists. ~ Saint Charbel, #KEYS
211:God who is no other thing but love has not created anything other than love. ~ Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace 36, #KEYS
212:He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor. ~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola, #KEYS
213:I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come--the Almighty." ~ Revelation 1:8, #KEYS
214:No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come
~ The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
215:The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.
~ Alexander von Humboldt,#KEYS
216:For anyone, man or woman, who has faith in me, I have never departed. I sleep on their threshold. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
217:Only he who lives not for himself, does not perish. ~ Lao-Tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
218:The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Lamentations, 3:25, #KEYS
219:Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
220:Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned. ~ Saadi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
221:Be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the gentle gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust, #KEYS
222:He is truly great who has great charity. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
223:He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5],#KEYS
224:I climb the road that never ends. Who can break from the snares of the world and join me in the clouds? ~ Han-Shan, #KEYS
225:I love those who yearn for the impossible.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
226:It is a fine thing when a man who thoroughly understands a subject is unwilling to open his mouth. ~ Yoshida Kenko, #KEYS
227:A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #KEYS
228:Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
229:Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him? ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
230:Who is whose Guru? God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
231:Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
232:He who abases Matter, abases himself and all creation. ~ CErsted, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
233:He who knows himself properly can very soon learn to know all other men. It is all reflection. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
234:I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Philippians, 4:13, King James Version, #KEYS
235:It is impossible to find a saint who did not take the two P's" seriously: prayer and penance. ~ Saint Francis Xavier, #KEYS
236:It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
237:The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
238:Anyone who has once called on the Master, with sincere faith and devotion has nothing more to fear. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
239:But who needs to ask the sun for its light." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
240:He alone who receives God's commandment is competent to teach others. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
241:The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
242:When I'm riding my bicycle I feel like a Buddhist who is happy just to enjoy his mundane existence." ~ Robin Williams, #KEYS
243:You must think of the one who repeats the mantra. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 606, #KEYS
244:'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. ~ Revelation 1:8, #KEYS
245:Let us lend ear to the sages who point out to us the way. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
246:The happiest is the man who is not at all selfish. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. II. 465), #KEYS
247:who love
understand
~ Kabir, @BashoSociety#KEYS
248:Blessed is the man who consumes his lion, and cursed is the man who is consumed by his lion. ~ Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, #KEYS
249:Each man who thinks ahead of his times is sure to be misunderstood. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
250:Since no one really knows anything about God,
those who think they do are just troublemakers. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
251:The mind of the one who knows the truth does not leave Brahman. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
252:Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die, and God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us. ~ Origen, #KEYS
253:Everyone who has studied the Psalms, Every Jewish Rabbi, Every Christian priest. Who is she? - the Truth." ~ Sufi saying, #KEYS
254:Flee idleness... for no one is more exposed to such temptations than he who has nothing to do. ~ Saint Robert Bellarmine, #KEYS
255:The enquiry 'Who am I?' turns the mind inward and makes it calm. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
256:Who is free from bondage in the world beyond? As soon as the angels were created, they began to serve. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
257:Anyone who aspires to a writing career, before developing his talent, would be wise to develop a thick hide. ~ Harper Lee, #KEYS
258:Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. ~ Jon von Neumann, #KEYS
259:Blessed is one who is before coming into being. For whoever is, was and will be. ~ Gospel of Philip, Nag Hammadi, 64:9-12, #KEYS
260:It is only those who persevere to the end that succeed. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 31), #KEYS
261:No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
~ Karl Popper,#KEYS
262:Pranayama is meant for one who cannot directly control his thoughts. It serves as a brake to a car. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
263:The most perfect man is the one who is most useful to others. ~ Koran, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
264:All divinely inspired Scripture was written because of the Virgin who brought forth God incarnate. ~ Saint Gregory Palamas, #KEYS
265:Everyone who has ever built anywhere a 'new heaven' first found the power thereto in his own hell.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
266:For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to me. ~ Bhagavad Gita 6.30, #KEYS
267:Hateful to me as are the gates of hell Is he who hiding one thing in his heart Utters another. ~ Homer, #KEYS
268:Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." ~ John 20:27-29, #KEYS
269:I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
270:It is only through the enquiry 'Who am I?' that the mind subsides. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
271:Who are you? No really. Way, way down deep. Who are you?" ~ Doug Dillon, author of "The Explosion of Being", (1984). See: , #KEYS
272:A true initiate will never force anyone who has not reached a certain level of maturity to accept his truth. ~ Franz Bardon, #KEYS
273:Blush not to submit to a sage who knows more than thyself. ~ Democritus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
274:He who acts according to what he holds to be the law of life, ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
275:He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah." ~ Hadith, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
276:The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
277:The person who aspires to be a Bhakta must be cheerful. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 69), #KEYS
278:There is no Guru, no disciple. Realize who you are.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5],#KEYS
279:They have all withdrawn, deserting shrine and altar, the gods by who this realm once stood firm. ~ Virgil, Aeneid II.351-52, #KEYS
280:Thou who hast come to this transcient and unhappy world, turn to Me. ~ Sri Aurobindo, TLD, Gita, #KEYS
281:Be persevering as one who shall last for ever. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
282:Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, Masters, and Bachelors of the most renowned Universities. ~ Ludwig Von Mises, #KEYS
283:The Lord takes the human body for the sake of those pure souls who love God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
284:Who is blinder even than the blind? The man of passion. ~ Buddhist Maxim, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
285:Be not self-seeking; try to be desire-less, and take your refuge in the Lord, who is the doer of all good. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
286:Break, break the old Tables, ye who seek after the knowledge. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
287:He alone is the true teacher who is illumined by the light of true Knowledge. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
288:He [she] who abandons all that is not Real directly realizes Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
289:Verily, I say to thee; he who seeks the Eternal, finds Him. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
290:He who is a friend of wisdom, must not be violent. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
291:It is you who must make the effort; the sages can only teach. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
292:Let us be one even with those who do not wish to be one with us. ~ Bossuet, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
293:No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 1:18, #KEYS
294:Only those who are perfectly truthful can be my true children.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
295:The man who docth these things shall live by them. ~ Epistle to the Romans, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
296:The means to abide in Self is to begin inquiring inwardly, "Who am I?" ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
297:Those who understand others are intelligent. Those who understand themselves, are enlightened. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
298:Let's ask God to help us to self-control for one who lacks it, lacks his grace. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
299:One who loves God finds the object of his love everywhere.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, [T4],#KEYS
300:Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything ... ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
301:Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
302:Yoga (union) is necessary for one who is in a state of viyoga (separation). But really there is only one. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
303:Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #KEYS
304:Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
305:Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. ~ Matthew V. 10, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
306:He only is free who has gained mastery over his passions and one who is a slave to them is bound in chains. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
307:If you consider that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. ~ 1 John 2:28-29, #KEYS
308:Living in the world cannot taint the person who has entered it after seeing God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
309:The fool who burns by day a camphor-light
Will soon not have an oil-lamp for the night. ~ Saadi, Gulistan,#KEYS
310:The man who knows the Tao, does not speak; he who speaks, knows It not. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
311:those who gain this treasure win the friendship of God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Wisdom 7:13)., #KEYS
312:What can he desire in the world who is greater than the world? ~ St. Cyprian, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
313:When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
314:. ... Above all, they are the Angels who reveal to you the final events described in the sealed Book." ~ Our Lady how this thread, #KEYS
315:At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
316:He who knows himself, knows his Lord. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi. "Essay on Unity.", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
317:If enquired 'Who thinks?', thinking will come to an end. Even when thoughts do not exist, do not you exist? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
318:Such is the last good of those who possess knowledge: to become God. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
319:The devotee who goes on patiently with his devotions is sure to find God at last. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
320:Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God who is the soul of truth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
321:Who is the enemy? Lack of energy. ~ The Jewel-wreath of Questions and Answers, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
322:At the center of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
323:At the centre of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
324:e who subdues men is only strong; he who subdues himself, is mighty. ~ Lao-Tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
325:For primitive egoism, however, the standing rule is that it is never 'I' who must change, but always the other fellow. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
326:God or Guru never forsakes the devotee who has surrendered him [her] self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
327:He who has My words and despises them has that which shall condemn him on the last day. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
328:No one is prepared; no one ever is. Work is work...it is merely a question of who will try to do what is required. ~ Rodney Collin, #KEYS
329:Only those who sympathise can help. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Problems in Human Relations, #KEYS
330:The doors of kings are locked and guarded by their henchmen, but Your door is open to those who call upon You. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
331:The highest teachers are those who say that God is with form, as well as formless. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
332:The man who has done good does not cry it through the world. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
333:He who loves is in joy, he is free and nothing stops him. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
334:How few are they who can attain samadhi and rid themselves of this aham, this self! ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
335:That man to me seems equal to the gods,
the man who sits opposite you
and close by listens
to your sweet voice ~ Sappho,#KEYS
336:The master of my stars is he
Who owns no master. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act V,#KEYS
337:We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 9:4, #KEYS
338:Is there a single man who can see what the Sage cannot even conceive? ~ Tseu-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
339:The highest achievement in this life is truly know who you are. ~ Banto, @BashoSociety #KEYS
340:Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son ~ who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever., #KEYS
341:The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
342:The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
343:The spiritual man is one who has discovered his soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
344:Words fail us when we seek, not to express Him who Is, but merely to attain to the expression of the powers that environ Him. ~ Philo, #KEYS
345:Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
346:Happy is his portion who knows and performs and has knowledge of the ways. ~ Labor, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
347:He who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
348:I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
349:Or do ye think that ye shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed away before you? ~ Koran, 2:214, #KEYS
350:The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best." ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
351:The man who flees from all worldly pleasures is an impregnable tower before the assaults of the demon of sadness. ~ Evagrius of Pontus, #KEYS
352:Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
353:You will not be good teachers if you focus only on what you do and not upon who you are. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #KEYS
354:Everybody is anxious to be a master. How many are there who would care to be disciples? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
355:He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
356:Let us, who are of the day, be sober. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Thessalonians, V. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
357:One is a true hero who performs all the duties of the world with the mind fixed on God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
358:The mantra-siddha is one who attains perfection by means of some sacred text or mantra. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
359:The Self cannot be the doer. Find out who is the doer and the Self is revealed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
360:The true cause of the blessedness of the good angels is found to be this, that they cleave to Him who supremely is ~ City of God 12.6)., #KEYS
361:They, who have no eyes in their face, are not called blind. They alone are blind, O Nanak, who stray away from their Lord. ~ Guru Angad, #KEYS
362:Those who practice Love
have neither religion
nor caste. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path#KEYS
363:For those who have an intense urge for Spirit and wisdom, it sits near them, waiting.
~ Patañjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, [T5],#KEYS
364:He who does no evil to any is as if the father and mother of all beings. ~ Madharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
365:It is only the coward who appeals always to destiny and never to courage. ~ Ramayana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
366:The dead are fortunate. It is only those who are left behind who feel miserable. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
367:The jar when it is filled makes no noise, and so one who has realized God does not talk. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
368:There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
369:Upright and sincere is the virtue of the man who directs well his mind. ~ Lao-Tsu-Te, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
370:We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Acts, 5:32 #KEYS
371:Who am I?
The Divine under many disguises.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, "The Divine" and "Man",#KEYS
372:A heretic is one who devises or follows false or new opinions ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.11.1sc)., #KEYS
373:A poet is someone Who can pour Light into a spoon Then raise it To nourish Your beautiful parched, holy mouth ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
374:Happy the man who has tamed the senses and is utterly their master. ~ Buddhist Maxims, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
375:It is in the absolute surrender of all conditions and requirements that liberation is discovered to be who and what you are. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
376:Those I love who know how to live only to disappear, for they pass beyond ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
377:Those who have not attained to God, what power have they to untie the bonds of the world? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
378:Who is the doubter? Who is the thinker? Find him [her]. These doubts will vanish. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
379:He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
380:I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.
~ Isaac Newton,#KEYS
381:Is there anyone who is not realizing the Self? Does anyone deny his own existence? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
382:One is truly free, even in this life, who knows that God does all and yet he does nothing. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
383:A dreamer is man who can find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
384:Egotism exists in ignorance, not in knowledge. He attains the Truth who is void of conceit. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
385:Hail to Thee, Master of the world, who triumphest over all darkness.
~ The Mother, Prayers And Meditations, [T1],#KEYS
386:He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
387:I call him a man who recognises no possessions save those he finds in himself. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
388:It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.
~ J R R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring,#KEYS
389:No one who sees the Essence of God can willingly turn away from God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.94.1)., #KEYS
390:The highest achievement in this life is truly know who you are.
~ Banto, @BashoSociety#KEYS
391:Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
392:Your naked body should only belong to those who fall in love with your naked soul. ~ Charlie Chaplin in a letter to his daughter, Geraldine, #KEYS
393:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who strivest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
394:Follow the instruction of holy men who have come to know the Lord after many a hard penance. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
395:He [She] who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
396:He who has a mistaken idea of life, will always have a mistaken idea of death. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
397:It is he who is never discouraged who greatens and tastes the eternal joy. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
398:Let him repulse lust and coveting, the disciple who would lead a holy life. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
399:Man is a creature blinded by the sun
Who errs by seeing ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act III,#KEYS
400:One who knows the secret of that love finds the world itself full of universal love. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
401:Those who have discovered great Truths have done so in the still depths of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
402: You are that blessed soul who belongs to the garden of Paradise. " ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
403:But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most? ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
404:No one I am, I who am all that is. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Liberation - I, #KEYS
405:One who thinks that his spiritual guide is merely a man, can draw no profit from his contact. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
406:See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
407:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who wrest lest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
408:He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake. ~ Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, #KEYS
409:The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Call to the Quest, #KEYS
410:To realize happiness, the enquiry, 'Who am I?' in quest of the Self is the best means. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
411:A diamond was laying in the street covered with dirt. Many fools passed by. Someone who knew diamonds picked it up. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
412:It is only those who are mature that can understand the matter in its naked simplicity. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
413:The gods have been created by Him, but of Him who knows the manner of His being? ~ Rig Veda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
414:The great man is he who has not lost the child's heart within him. ~ Meng-Tse. I V. II. XII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
415:The wheel of fortune turns incessantly round, and who can say within himself, I shall today be uppermost?
~ Confucius,#KEYS
416:We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way." ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
417:When the right person hugs you, it's like medicine. I'm so grateful for those few people in my life who are good for my soul." ~ Steve Maraboli, #KEYS
418:Let the superior man regard all men who dwell within the four seas as his brothers. ~ Lun Yu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
419:Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, [T5], #KEYS
420:Oh Khusrau, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across. ~ Amir Khusrau,#KEYS
421:Only the one who can give everything, enjoys the Divine All everywhere. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T3], #KEYS
422:Those who love her discover her easily and those that seek her do find her. ~ Book of Wisdom, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
423:Everyone sleeps, except lovers, who stay awake, telling stories to God." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
424:He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
425:I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. ~ Susan B Anthony, #KEYS
426:It is consoling that he who must judge us dwell in us to save us always from all of our miseries, and to pardon us." ~ Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, #KEYS
427:Lest we remind you that, "He who does not thank the people, does not thank Allah. ~ Hadith, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
428:One becomes as one thinks. One who constantly thinks of the Bliss Absolute becomes full of bliss. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
429:The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Supreme Word of the Gita, #KEYS
430:The Facts were right there waiting for me, hidden in old books written by people who weren't afraid to be honest ~ Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, #KEYS
431:There is always one man who more than others represents the divine thought of the epoch. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
432:You have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.
~ Saint Francis of Assisi,#KEYS
433:Awakening doesn't mean that you awaken. It means that there is only awakening. There is no you who is awake, there is only awakeness. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
434:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
435:He who stands on tiptoe, doesn't stand form. He who rushes ahead, doesn't go far. He who tries to shine, dims his own light. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.24, #KEYS
436:I do not waste my words on tired minds.
I can only talk to those who are thirsty
for the sea ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
437:If you enquire 'Who am I?' the mind gets introverted and the rising thought also subsides. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
438:The demons become his companions who abandons himself to heedlessness. ~ Fo-shu-hiug-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
439:The greater the gap between self perception and reality, the more aggression is unleashed on those who point out the discrepancy. ~ Stefan Molyneux #KEYS
440:To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 1:79, #KEYS
441:To have a great man for an intimate friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.
~ Homer,#KEYS
442:Who can be the Master of another? The Eternal alone is the guide and the Master. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
443:Among the thousands one can hardly find more than a hundred of them who are being saved, and even about that I am doubtful. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
444:Find out who you are, but don't cling to any definition. Mutate as many times as necessary to live in the totality of your being. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
445:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and -- to God only. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 1.02, #KEYS
446:It is we who, in the eyes of Intelligence, are the essence of the divine regard. ~ Omar Khayyam, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
447:Those who accomplish me, accomplish all the buddhas; Those who see me, see all the buddhas. - Guru Rinpoche, Guru Yoga?
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,#KEYS
448:Always and in all things, the Logos of God, who is also God, wills to fulfill the mystery of his embodiment. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Amb. 7 (1084d), #KEYS
449:Anyone who will think of God, and repeat His name, will have everything intact - here and hereafter. His name is true for ever. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
450:Every saint who has made exemplary progress in beauty is thereby said to be a type of God the giver…. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Amb. 10.20a [1141c], #KEYS
451:He who thinks one's spiritual guru is a mere person cannot make much progress in the spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
452:None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
453:The Avatar is like the great engineer who strikes a new well in a place where there was none before. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
454:To enquire 'Who am I that am in bondage?' and to know one's real nature is alone Liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
455:We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
~ Plato,#KEYS
456:He who would do good must do it in Minute Particulars. General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite and flatterer. ~ William Blake, Jerusalem, #KEYS
457:His Grace is always with those who want to progress and realise the Truth of tomorrow.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I,#KEYS
458:ho has ruder battles to sustain than the man who labours for self-conquest? ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
459:Is it not a wonder of wonders? The quest "Who am I?" is the axe with which to cut off the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
460:Sometimes I wonder if people who aggrressively seek political power are precisely those who should not be entrusted to wield it. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #KEYS
461:The heart rejoices at the feet of the Lord, who is the Self eternally shining within as 'I-I'. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
462:The One by whom all live, who lives by none, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Pursuit of the Unknowable, #KEYS
463:The Self is the eternal 'I am'." ~ Sankara, 8th century Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, Wikipedia., #KEYS
464:To grieve is an insult to Sri Aurobindo who is here with us, conscious and alive.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T5],#KEYS
465:You must be pure and help anyone who comes to you, as much as lies in your power. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 142), #KEYS
466:You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading." ~ Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, #KEYS
467:Do not focus so much on the path; keep your eyes fixed on the one who guides you and on the heavenly home to which He is guiding you. ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
468:He who is face to face with reality, blessed with a vision of God, does not regard women with any fear. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
469:The one who reckons himself one with everyone, because he seems to see himself unceasingly in each one, is a monk. ~ Evagrius Ponticus, On Prayer §125, #KEYS
470:The sages who see the eternal in things transient, for them is the peace eternal. ~ Katha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
471:To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,#KEYS
472:When a savior becomes incarnate, innumerable are the beings who find salvation by taking refuge in him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
473:Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. ~ Matthew V. 6, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
474:He who is drawn to something desirable does not desire to have it as a thought but as a thing. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
475:He who looks on the forms of existence as a form or a mirage, shall not see death. ~ Sanyutta Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
476:He who remembers the consequence of sins, surely patience will become easy for him. ~ Ibn Qayyim], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
477:He who sees all things in the self and the self in all things, has doubt no longer. ~ I-sha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
478:I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
479:In trying to reach God one should follow implicitly the advice of a single Guru who knows the way to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
480:Let no one communicate who is not of the disciples. Let no Judas receive, lest he suffer the fate of Judas. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 82 on Matthew, #KEYS
481:None who has not been prodigal of his best has ever risen to greatness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, More about Unity, #KEYS
482:The thought 'who am I?' will destroy all other thoughts. Then, there will arise Self-realization. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
483:Any one who shows the way to something good has the same reward as the person who does it. ~ Hadith, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
484:By directly inquiring, "Who AM I?" ... 'I' reveals itself as the Perfect Being, the Absolute Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
485:Even if the egotism of the servant or the worshiper should remain, one who has attained God can hurt none. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
486:God with form and God without form are not two different beings. He who is with form is also without form. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
487:Sometimes there are two persons who disagree, and there comes a third person and all unite together. Is this not the nature of music? ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #KEYS
488:Those who come with the Avatars are either souls who are eternally free or who are born for the last time. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
489:Thou who hast been set in thy station of man to aid by all means the common interest ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
490:He who seeks him, finds him; he who yearns intensely after the Ineffable, has found the Ineffable. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
491:He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, [T7],#KEYS
492:I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
493:There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
494:Those who have been entrusted to us abandon God, and we are silent. They fall into sin, and we do not extend a hand of rebuke. ~ Pope St. Gregory the Great, #KEYS
495:Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
After you know my poems are not poems,
Then we can begin to discuss poetry! ~ Taigu Ryokan,#KEYS
496:Blessed are they who long to give their time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the world. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
497:Every man who returns into himself, will find there traces of the Divinity. ~ Cicero, "De Regibus. I. 22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
498:Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand that night and day are one ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
499:One should have faith like that of an innocent child and the longing of a child who wants to see its mother. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
500:The poet is a magician who hardly knows the secret of his own spell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Word and the Spirit, #KEYS
501:There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing." ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
502:To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. ~ Kofi Annan, #KEYS
503:Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love." ~ Saint Juliana of Norwich, #KEYS
504:But call Him by what name you will; for to those who know, He is the possessor of all names. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
505:Enquiring within "Who is the seer?" I saw the seer disappearing and That alone which stands for ever. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
506:He alone is clever who sees that God is real and all else is illusory. What need have I of other information? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
507:He who turns inward with a calm mind to see where the consciousness of 'I' arises, realizes the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
508:The corruption of death no longer holds any power over mankind, thanks to the Word, who has come to dwell among them through his one body. ~ Saint Athanasius, #KEYS
509:There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" ~ C .S. Lewis, #KEYS
510:those who rely on the Divine will arrive in spite of all difficulties, stumbles or falls.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV,#KEYS
511:But for one who has faith in the Divine Grace, the return to the Light becomes easy.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, [T7],#KEYS
512:For one who lives, moves, has their being in God and is intoxicated with His love, God has incarnated Himself. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
513:In that God who illumines the reason, desiring liberation I seek my refuge. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad VI.18, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
514:Like one who wakes to find his dreams were true
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Ideal,#KEYS
515:That is the bright Light of all lights which they know who know themselves. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I.4, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
516:The eternal Truth shall never be attained by him who is not entirely truthful in his speech. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
517:The greatest science is the knowledge of oneself. He who knows himself, knows God. ~ Clement of Alexandria, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
518:Brahman, God, cannot be explained by words. One who has realized Brahman can only say: "Brahman is everywhere." ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
519:For one who lives, moves, has their being in God, and is intoxicated with His love, God has incarnated Himself. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
520:He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
521:It is the Absolute who is all these relativities. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
522:One can recognise in those beings who are so lar from us the principle of our own existence. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
523:One who is not self-ruler, cannot be master of his surroundings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
524:One who thinks that his spiritual guide is merely a man, can draw no profit from his contact. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
525:The outward form of one who has touched the feet of God remains unchanged, although they no longer do any evil. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
526:The Two who are one are the secret of all power,
The Two who are one are the might and right in things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri,#KEYS
527:When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
528:Who has not found the heaven below Will fail of it above. His residence is next to mine, His furniture is love." ~ Emily Dickinson 1(830 - 1886) American poet., #KEYS
529:Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root, and beginning of all Goodness. ~ Saint Isaac of Syria, #KEYS
530:He who fights even the smallest distractions faithfully, when he says even the smallest prayer, will also be faithful in great things. ~ Saint Louis de Montfort, #KEYS
531:It is the Self who has become all these becomings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
532:Most anthologists of poetry or quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters, first picking the best and ending by eating everything. ~ Nicolas Chamfort, #KEYS
533:The doubt arises in you. Know who the doubter is, and then you may consider if the world is real or not. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
534:The man veritably free is he who, disburdened of fear and desire, is subjected only to his reason. ~ Fenelon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
535:The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it. ~ Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment, #KEYS
536:They who torture living beings and feel no compassion towards them, them regard as impure. ~ Amaghanda Susta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
537:This man who knew not scripture, had the highest learning, for he had a pure love for God and could realize him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
538:Those who refuse to be humble cannot be saved. They cannot say with the prophet: 'See, God comes to my aid; the Lord is the helper of my soul.' ~ Venerable Bede, #KEYS
539:Who is the 'I' that is to help others? First clear up that point and then everything will settle itself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
540:Good and evil cannot bind him who has realised the oneness of nature and self with the Eternal. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
541:Men who possess virtue, wisdom, prudence, intelligence have generally been formed in tribulations. ~ Meng-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
542:The ally who helps, may also covet. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To Motilal Roy, #KEYS
543:The Grace is infinite for him who sincerely trusts the Grace.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Trust in the Divine Grace and Help,#KEYS
544:Who am I — what kind of watchman am I? I do not stand on the pinnacle of achievement, I languish rather in the depths of my weakness. ~ Saint Gregory the Great, #KEYS
545:And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
546:And she was his messiah like that stranger may be yours. Who holds a subtle knife that carves through worlds like magic doors
~ Saul Williams, Talk to Strangers,#KEYS
547:Attachment is bondage; yet again, attachment opens the door to liberation to one who becomes attached to God or the Guru or to illumined souls. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
548:Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
549:Does the world say that it exists? It is you who say that there is a world. Find out the Self who says it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
550:He alone is truly a man who is illumined by the light of the true knowledge. Others are only men in name. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
551:He who regards the body as a milage or as a flake of foam on the waves, shall no longer see death ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
552:I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuse." ~ Kobe Bryant, #KEYS
553:One who is always stationed in the Atman will not be disturbed, even in the midst of a crowd. Such a one has no need or desire for solitude. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
554:The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
555:Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. ... They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not fain'
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Isaiah, 40:31 NLT.,#KEYS
556:We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
557:A heretic who disbelieves one article of faith has neither living faith nor lifeless faith ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.5.3)., #KEYS
558:God is far, far away from the worldly-minded. For those who have renounced the world He is in the palm of the hand. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
559:God makes Himself felt anywhere and everywhere when there is an Incarnation who floods the world with spirituality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
560:Hard are God's terms and few can meet them of men who are mortal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
561:He who has the spirit of devotion in him receives an awakening in holy places, and that spirit becomes intensified. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
562:He who thinks that he is a Jiva is a Jiva; he who considers himself God becomes God. As one thinks, so one becomes. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
563:It is not today nor tomorrow; who knoweth That which is Supreme? When It is approached, It vanishes. ~ Rig Veda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
564:Leave alone your desires and fears. Ask: who desires? Let each desire bring you back to yourself. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
565:Peace to him who has finished this supreme journey under the guidance of the Truth and the Light ! ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
566:When he says: 'Rejoice, O barren woman who never bore a child,' he is speaking of us, for our Church was barren until children were given her. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
567:He who follows the steep path that climbs the heights can easily slip down into the abyss.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The Path,#KEYS
568:He who to some gives victory, joy and good,
To some gives rest. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, To R.,#KEYS
569:Hundreds come from all over to see one who is liberated. Just as when a flower opens, the bees come to it uninvited. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
570:Long live the feet that are the being-consciousness-bliss of him who does not stir as all else whirls about. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
571:Mire is the man who hears not the gods when they cry to his bosom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
572:Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well, who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of him. ~ Saint Dominic Savio, #KEYS
573:Our tradition tells us that God does not need the material offerings humans can give him, since he himself is the one who provides everything. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
574:Thanks be to the Gospel, by means of which we also, who did not see Christ when he came into this world, seem to be with him when we read his deeds. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
575:The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Isaiah, 9:2, #KEYS
576:There are people who spout verses from the Scriptures and talk big, but in their conduct they are quite different.
~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
577:Those who prefer their principles over their happiness, they refuse to be happy outside the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
578:Two there are who are never satisfied -- the lover of the world and the lover of knowledge. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
579:We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
580:Why do we put people who are on drugs in jail? They're sick, they're not criminals. Sick people don't get healed in prison. You see? It makes no sense. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
581:"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Exodus, 20:7, #KEYS
582:Even though the mind wanders, involved in external matters, one should remember: The body is not I. Who am I? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
583:Everything is full of signs, and the one who understands one thing on the basis of another is a wise man of sorts. ~ Plotinus, Enneads §2.3.7, #KEYS
584:Everything that is made beautiful, fair and lovely is made for the eye of the one who sees." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
585:It was right that she who had given her Creator, as a child, a place at her breast should be given a place in the dwelling-place of her God. ~ Saint John of Damascus, #KEYS
586:Only the one who meditates on the heart can remain aware when the mind ceases to be active and remains still. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
587:Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the universe who is ever victorious and accomplishes everything. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
588:The man who has not found God is full of vain disputation, but he who has seen Him, enjoys silently the Bliss Divine. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
589:There is no such thing as 'I'. See the beauty of it! Where there is no 'I', who is the doer and what is done? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
590:The renunciation of karma comes of itself when the love of God swells up. Let them work who are made to do so by God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
591:Those who think that Aristotle disagrees with Plato disagree with me, who make a concordant philosophy of both. ~ Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, On Being and the One, #KEYS
592:All loves are a bridge to divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
593:A man who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either command them, or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil. ~ Saint Dominic, #KEYS
594:If by the enquiry, 'Who am I?' you understand the seer, all problems about the seen will be completely solved. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
595:If one turns inward in search of that One Reality they fall away. Those who see this are those who see wisdom. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
596:One who, living amidst the temptations of the world, can discipline the mind by devotional exercises is the true hero. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
597:The great remedy for the long-lasting disease of samsara is the enquiry, 'Who am I?, to whom does this samsara belong?,' which entirely cures it. ~ Yoga Vasishta Sara, #KEYS
598:All men who repeat a line from Shakespeare are William Shakespeare ~ Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Selected Stories and Other Writings, #KEYS
599:He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T8], #KEYS
600:He who knows ten should only teach nine." ~ Far Eastern Saying. From: "The Essential Rene Guenon: Metaphysics, Tradition, and the Crisis of Modernity,", (2009), p.272., #KEYS
601:Some seek consolations through pleasures; the Lord says, "Blessed are those who mourn" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Mt 5)., #KEYS
602:The 'work,' whether of the artist or the philosopher, invents the man who has created it, who is supposed to have created it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil, #KEYS
603:To be here, all you have to do is let go of who you think you are. That's all! And then you realize: "I'm here". 'Here' is where thoughts aren't believed. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
604:When going through spiritual exercises do not associate with those who never concern themselves with matters spiritual. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
605:All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
~ J R R Tolkien,#KEYS
606:Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Mt 5:10)., #KEYS
607:He who has perfectly mastered himself in thought and speech and act, he is indeed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
608:He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
609:He who wants to find God, finds God. Go and verify it in your own life! Try for three days and thou art sure to succeed. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
610:Only one who knows not that God lives in him can attri bute to certain men more importance than to others. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
611:Self-Giving
To him who is the source of all that we are, we give all that we are. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Supreme Divine,#KEYS
612:Those who don't know how to suffer are the worst off. There are times when the only correct thing we can do is to bear out troubles until a better day." ~ Ming-Dao Deng, #KEYS
613:Approach unto wisdom like one who tilleth and soweth and await in peace its excellent fruits. ~ Ecolesiasticus VI. 19, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
614:Fearless of death they must walk who would live and be mighty for ever. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
615:I have a sweet little Mother
Who lives in my heart;
We are so happy together,
We shall never part.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
616:So long as subtle tendencies continue to inhere in the mind, it is necessary to carry on the enquiry, 'Who am I?' ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
617:Sri Aurobindo is constantly among us and reveals himself to those who are ready to see and hear him.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T5],#KEYS
618:The greatest man in the world is not the conqueror, but the man who has domination over his own being. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
619:The just man is not one who does hurt to none, but one who having the power to hurt represses the will. ~ Pytha-goras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
620:There are people who are destined to taste only the poison in things, for whom any surprise is a painful surprise and any experience a new occasion for torture. ~ Cioran, #KEYS
621:The Sufis are those who have preferred God to everything, so that God has preferred them to everything. ~ Dhul-Nun, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
622:We have indeed many things to learn from others; yea, that man who refuses to learn is already dead. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 381), #KEYS
623:He who can resign himself to the will of the Almighty with simple faith and guileless love realises the Lord very quickly. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
624:Invoke your Guardian Angel who will enlighten you. God gave you your Guardian Angel for this reason. So make use of your Angel's service. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
625:Is it asked, who is the most excellent of the strong? I reply, it is he who possesses patience. ~ Sutra in 42 articles, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
626:O new mingling; O paradoxical mingling! The One Who Is has come to be, the Uncreatated One is created, the Uncontained One is contained. ~ Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 38, #KEYS
627:O thou who resumest in thyself all creation, cease for one moment to be preoccupied with gain and loss. ~ Omar Khayyam, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
628:The man who lives in the bosom of the temptations of the world and attains perfection, is the true hero. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
629:They, even when they tyrannise, remain
Most dear and reverend still, who gave us birth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
630:Who is there that serves and obeys Me in all things with as great care as that with which the world and its masters are served? ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
631:Always it is the individual who progresses and compels the rest to progress. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Inadequacy of the State Idea, #KEYS
632:Ask: "Who am I?" until well-established in the conviction that a Higher Power guides us. That is firmness of faith. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
633:Born to no purpose is the person who, having the rare privilege of being born human, is unable to realize God in this life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
634:He is not a man of religion who does ill to another. He is not a disciple who causes suffering to another. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
635:It is He who engenders Himself perpetually.......the Lord of existences and of non-existences. ~ Egyptian Funeral Rites, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
636:One who lacks the individuality, left to enjoy the Divine, is like one who cannot taste sugar and instead has become sugar! ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
637:Only a life lived for others is a life worth living." ~ Albert Einstein, (1879 - 1955) German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, Wikipedia., #KEYS
638:The man who recognises in his own soul the supreme Soul present in all creatures, shows himself the same to all. ~ Manu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
639:The poor animats who live in ail obscure consciousness of dream posses many rights to love and campassion. ~ Jatakamala, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
640:The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, he who dispels them, Because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is thus named. ~ Advayataraka Upanishad, Verse 16, #KEYS
641:When you hear that He was lifted up, understand His hanging on high, that He might sanctify the air who had sanctified the earth by walking upon it. ~ Theophylact of Ohrid, #KEYS
642:Death and decrepitude are inherent in the world. The sage who knows the nature of things, does not grieve. ~ Metta Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
643:Ask: 'Who am I?' until well-established in the conviction that a Higher Power guides us. That is firmness of faith.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
644:Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ~ Plato, #KEYS
645:He who has to see written things has need of the light; and he who has to learn the wisdom of beings has need of spiritual love. ~ Evagrius Ponticus, Kephalaia Gnostika 3.58, #KEYS
646:If he who sets out on this way will not engage himself wholly and completely, he will never be free from the sadness and melancholy which weigh him down. ~ Attar of Nishapur, #KEYS
647:In those who lack faith
Nothing positive will grow
Just as from a burnt seed
No green shoot will ever sprout.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher,#KEYS
648:None can be richer, more powerful, freer than he who knows how to renounce his self and all things. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
649:One who worships God but also cherishes worldly desires will find their devotion wasted, run through the rat-holes of desire. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
650:The man who knows Tao is inaccessible to favour as to disgrace, to profit as to loss, to honour as to ignominy. ~ Lao-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
651:The most powerful way to resist evil is to sit with good friends who have turned their faces to God. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
652:The ninety and nine are with dreams, content, but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
653:The one who has realized the supreme truth is aware of the one as the real Self in all things, eternal and immutable. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
654:Young and old and those who are growing to age, shall all die one after the other like fruits that fall. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
655:All souls who aspire are always under my direct care.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, The Mother, Relations with Others, 'I am with You', [T1],#KEYS
656:An off-cast from the city is he who tears his soul away from the soul of reasoning beings, which is one. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
657:He is a true man to whom money is a servant. Those who have it and do not know how to use it, do not deserve to be called men. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
658:If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
659:If you have faith and confidence, it is not the human form of the guru that you worship, but the Supreme Lord who manifests through him. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
660:Oh my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value. ~ Saint Teresa of Jesus, #KEYS
661:One who is totally devoid of Maya will not live more than twenty-one days. So long as one has a body, one must have some Maya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
662:The city in which those who are going to rule are least eager to rule is necessarily governed best and with the least divisiveness. ~ Plato, Republic 520d, #KEYS
663:The future is in the hands of those who can give tomorrow's generations valid reasons to live and hope. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
664:The man who prays, the prayer, and the God to whom he prays all have reality only as manifestations of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5], #KEYS
665:`Who am I to meditate on an object ?' Such a one must be told to find the Self. That is the finality. That is vichara. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
666:Who, then, are those brothers? Jerome says that men are called brothers in many ways ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on My 12, lect 4)., #KEYS
667:A perfected human world cannot be created by men or composed of men who are themselves imperfect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
668:A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. ~ Quodvultdeus, #KEYS
669:Born into the womb ::: Born into the womb of a HIPPU (a woman in a very low social position who is considered stupid and worthless) on a summer's day.
~ Saisei Muro,#KEYS
670:By inordinately using the body through lust, a man wrongs God Who is the Supreme Lord of our body ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.153.3ad2)., #KEYS
671:Consider God's charity. Where else have we ever seen someone who has been offended voluntarily paying out his life for those who have offended him?" ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #KEYS
672:He who in his neighbour sees no other tiling but God, lives with the light that flowers in the Divinity. ~ Angelns Silesius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
673:He who is weighed down by too many cares and anxieties goes down; while he who has fewer rises up towards the feet of the Lord. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
674:One is truly wise who has seen the Lord becomes like a little child. His individuality is merely in appearance, not in reality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
675:Those, on the contrary, who contemplate the immutable essence of things, have knowledge and not opinions. ~ Plato: Republic, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
676:Who is the One who gives grief to the Heart, but when you cry at His temple, your grief is sweetened?" ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
677:A man who has comm and over his senses and the forces of his being, has a just title to the name of king. ~ Angelus Silesius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
678:At the site of Narendra, I am drunken with joy. Never have I asked him, "Who is your father?" or "How many houses have you got?" ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
679:But the highest philosophical science, namely metaphysics, can dispute with one who denies its principles ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.1.8)., #KEYS
680:Circumstances, though they attack obstinately the man who is firm, cannot destroy his proper virtue,-firmness. ~ Bhartrihari, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
681:Everything "obeys money", for the multitude of fools who only know material goods that money can buy ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.2.1ad1)., #KEYS
682:He alone traverses the current of the illusion who comes face to face with the Eternal and realises it. ~ Hermes: On Rebirth, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
683:He who is the Omniscient, the all-wise, He whose energy is all made of knowledge, from Him is born this that is Brahman here, this Name and Form and Matter. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, #KEYS
684:He who is weighted down by too many cares and anxieties goes down; while he who has fewer rises up towards the feet of the Lord. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
685:I actually see that whatever is, is God. It is He who has become all these things, the mind and Buddhi are lost in the absolute. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
686:One ray of light from my Divine Mother, who is the Goddess of Wisdom, has the power to turn the most leaned scholar into a worm. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
687:One who has the call in him cannot fail to arrive, if he follows patiently the way towards the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Purity, #KEYS
688:Our best friend is he who loves us in the best of ourselves, and yet does not ask us to be other than we are. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, 288, #KEYS
689:That man who seeth the self in all beings and all beings in the self, has no disdain for any thing that is. ~ Isha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
690:The virtue of a man who has attained to the height of perfection, extends even to a foreknowledge of the future. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
691:When Jesus Christ came upon the Earth, you killed Him. The son of your own God. And only after He was dead did you worship Him and start killing those who would not. ~ Tecumseh, #KEYS
692:Be free. Live in the world like the cast-out leaf-plate from which food has been eaten. It is worthless. Who cares to possess it? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
693:[...] for doubt itself is an attribute of Saturn (Satan). Those who are not striving for the highest, partake of the lowest. ~ Manly P Hall, Magic: A Treatise on Esoteric Ethics, #KEYS
694:God dwells in a Light, to which a road is wanting. He who does not become That himself, will never see It. ~ Angelus Silesius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
695:I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
696:I can understand that life is difficult, but the Lord's force is infinite and it is always available for those who pray for it sincerely.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
697:Sincerity, a profound, grand, ingenuous sincerity is the first characteristic of all men who are in any way heroic. ~ Carlyle, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
698:That is why it is permitted to him who has attained to the truty within, to say, "I am the true Divine." ~ Mohyiddin in Arabi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
699:A man has the spirit of true renunciation who, upon meeting a beautiful young woman, turns away from her, seeing her as his mother ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
700:It is not by the water in which they plunge that men become pure but he becomes pure who follows the path of the Truth. ~ ibid, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
701:It is only when God is essentialized into the Summum Ens that he presents himself as the wholly other who intrudes into finitude as an enemy. ~ Ferdinand Ulrich, Homo Abyssus 272, #KEYS
702:Souls are said to be of four different classes: the bound, those aspiring to freedom, the freed, and those who are eternally free. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
703:young portress bright
Who opens to our souls the worlds of light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Fear of Death,#KEYS
704:A rule of the few exists when the regime is dominated by those who abound in riches ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Politics 6, lect. 6)., #KEYS
705:In the experience of yogis who do not perceive things dualistically, the fact that things manifest without truly existing is so amazing that they burst into laughter. ~ Longchenpa, #KEYS
706:I see that it is the Absolute who has become all things about us; it is He who appears as the finite soul and the phenomenal world. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
707:Men shed rivers of tears for family, love and riches, but who sheds even a drop because he is not fortunate enough to see the Lord? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
708:One is truly wise who has seen the Lord and becomes like a little child. His individuality is merely in appearance, not in reality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
709:That which was the beginning of all things under heaven we may speak of as the 'mother' of all things.
He who apprehends the mother, thereby knows the sons.
Tao Te Ching, LI#KEYS
710:Those who have any wish to attain God and make progress should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
711:To a Bhakta, the Lord manifests in various forms. To one who reaches Jnana (Samadhi), he is the formless Nirguna Brahman once more. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
712:Who is the superior man ? It is he who first puts his words in practice and then speaks in agreement with his acts. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
713:For as without woman Adam produced woman, so did the Virgin without man this day bring forth a man. For it is a man, saith the Lord, and who shall know him. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
714:He who consecrates his life to spiritual perfection, cannot be ill-content; for what he desires is always in his power. ~ Pascal, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
715:He who was heedless and has become vigilant, shines over the darkened world like a moon in cloudless heavens. ~ Udanavarga Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
716:It is the mean-minded who covet supernatural powers. Those who are pure Bhaktas do not want anything but the louts-feet of the Lord. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
717:Ah, let us live happy without hating those who hate us. In the midst of men who hate us, let us live without hatred. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
718:Everyone who has ever written will have discovered that writing always awakens something which, though it lay within us, we failed clearly to recognize before. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
719:For all who think of him with faith
The Buddha is there in front of them
And will give empowerments and blessings.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, [T5],#KEYS
720:For one who has the assured inner life, there is no dullness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Profiting from One's Stay in the Ashram, #KEYS
721:I am not really impressed by someone who can turn the floor into the ceiling, or fire into water. A real miracle is if someone can liberate just one negative emotion. ~ Lerab Lingpa, #KEYS
722:Indeed, I am a forest and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness will also find rose slopes under my cypresses. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #KEYS
723:In the ideal college, intrinsic education would be available to anyone who wanted it...The college would be life-long, for learning can take place all through life. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
724:Knowledge can never be created, it can only be discovered; and every man who makes a great discovery is inspired. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 39), #KEYS
725:My solitude doesn't depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
726:Siddhas or miraculous powers are to be avoided like filth. He who sets his mind on the Siddhis, remains stuck and cannot rise higher. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
727:So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Genesis, 16:13, #KEYS
728:The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. ~ Thucydides, ?, 5th century BC, #KEYS
729:A perfected human world cannot be created by men or composed of men who are themselves imperfect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
730:God in thy victory, God in thy defeat, God in thy very death & torture, - God who will not be defeated & who cannot die.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad,#KEYS
731:It is God who constantly inspires thought and sentiment in the heart of devotees, that is why they never lack in what is new and wise. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
732:It is the Lord who sustains our floundering hope, just as he sustained Peter when he was floundering in the water, and made the waters firm beneath his feet. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
733:Why are we on earth?
To find the Divine who is in each of us and in all things.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [3],#KEYS
734:One who has attained God keeps only the marks, the withered scars of anger and passion, yet their nature is just like that of a child. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
735:One who has attained God keeps only the marks, the withered scars of anger and passion, yet.their nature is just like that of a child. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
736:The hired preachers of all sects, creeds, and religions, never do, and never can, teach any thing but what is in conformity with the opinions of those who pay them." ~ Frances Wright, #KEYS
737:We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.This is true for the entire universe. ~ Upanishads, #KEYS
738:Who can know God? It is not for us, nor required, to know God fully. It is enough if we can see and feel that God is the only reality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
739:Who knows this ruler within, he knows the worlds and the gods and creatures and the Self, he knows all. ~ Mundaka Upanishad I.210., the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
740:With what understanding can man apprehend God, who does not yet apprehend that very understanding itself of his own, by which he desires to apprehend Him? ~ Saint Augustine, (DT 5.1), #KEYS
741:Arise and be not slothful ! Follow the straight path ! He who so walks, lives happy in this world and in those beyond. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
742:Consciousness has no standing-place if there is none who is conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
743:Even when we are blinded by the fulfillment of every worldly desire there may arise in us this question: "Who am I who enjoy all this?" ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
744:Force is inherent in Existence. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti are one and not two who are separable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Conscious Force, #KEYS
745:One who returns not wrath to wrath, saves himself as well as the other from a great peril: he is A physician to both. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
746:O you who are vain of your mortal possessions, know that wealth is a heavy barrier between the seeker and the Desired. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
747:The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
748:The one who is stern with people on acts of worship (ibada) will only turn them away from it. ~ al-Habib Ahmad b. Hasan al-Attas, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
749:Verily, the weight of half of disbelief in the world is carried by religious people who made God detestable to His servants. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
750:And he is our peace who made the two into one: that we might be men of good will, sweetly linked by the bond of unity. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
751:An evil prelate should not be honored because of who he is, but because of the one whose position he holds ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Quodlibet 8.4.2)., #KEYS
752:As wet wood put on a furnace loses its moisture, so worldiness dries away for one who has taken refuge in God and repeats His holy name. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
753:Even when we are blinded by the fulfillment of every worldly desire there may arise in us this question: "Who am I who enjoys all this?" ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
754:God is the embodiment of all happiness and pleasure at once. Those who realize God can find no attraction in the pleasures of the world. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
755:He becomes master of all this universe who has this knowledge.-Know thyself, sound the divinity ~ Epictetus, "Conversations." III.22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
756:He was no fool or Utopian who wished to be the maker of songs for his country rather than its law giver. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Work and Ideal, #KEYS
757:He who sowed sparingly, shall reap also sparingly, and he who sowed bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. ~ II Corinthians IX. 6, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
758:He who speaks best of God is he who, in the presence of the plenitude of the interior riches, knows best how to be silent. ~ Eckhart, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
759:I give order to those who are perfectly and totally surrendered, as these orders cannot be discussed or disobeyed.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
760:Most of all He wanted to teach his disciples, who were destined to be the teachers of the entire world ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (In 1 Jn. 6, lect. 1)., #KEYS
761:Notice how they preach to you a sermon full of love, of praise of God, and how they invite you to proclaim the greatness of the one who has given them being." ~ Saint Paul of the Cross, #KEYS
762:The Lord of the universe manifests differently according to the different likings of His worshipers who each have their own view of God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
763:Unless you allow some time to pass, no teaching can ever bear fruit. Those who you teach will not, as a rule, be able to profit at once. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
764:He who sees God in all, will serve freely God in all with the service of love. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Conditions for the Coming of a Spiritual Age, #KEYS
765:If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5], #KEYS
766:One who has made in sport the suns and seas
Mirrors in our being his immense caprice. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Lila,#KEYS
767:People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons from within. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination, #KEYS
768:Rules us, who in the Brahmin and the dog
Can, if He will, show equal godhead. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Baji Prabhou,#KEYS
769:The man who does not try to raise his spirit above itself, is not worthy to live in the condition of a man. ~ Angelus Silesius II. 22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
770:There is only one God, and he is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through his own Word, first of all sent forth. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
771:This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
772:This is the Nemesis of men who rise
Too suddenly by fraud or violence
That they suspect all hearts. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
773:Those who seek name and fame are under a delusion. They forget that everything is ordained by the great disposer of all things, the Lord. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
774:Those who start their practice by uniting with their Guru and chosen deity, fear no reverses or difficulties ... progress will be smooth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
775:through whom all things are, He who leads men to glory, and who is the Author of human salvation suffered and died ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 4.34)., #KEYS
776:Words fail us when we seek, not to express Him who Is, but merely to attain to the expression of the powers that environ Him. ~ Philo, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
777:By virtue of Creation, and still more the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
778:He who thus knows, "I am the Eternal", the gods themselves cannot make him other, for he is their own self. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
779:If a man loves God, living upon the flesh of pigs, he is blessed; unlike the man who lives on milk and rice but is fixed on lust and gold. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
780:Liberation is attained only by one who has forgotten the self. Even when losing all ego, God may or may not come to take the place of ego. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
781:One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent; music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
782:One who has shaped this world is ever its lord:
Our errors are his steps upon the way. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
783:The divine power is greater in those who are honored, respected and obeyed by a large following, than in those who have no such influence. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
784:Those become immortal who know by the heart and the understanding Him who in the heart has his dwelling-place. ~ wetaswatara Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
785:Those who are consecrated to Truth shall surely gain the other shore and they shall cross the torrent waves of death. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
786:Those who do not believe that God has care of human affairs usually follow their own will in all things ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Job 22)., #KEYS
787:Why is it that people are fed at religious feasts? It is the same as offering a sacrifice to God, who is the Living Fire in all creatures. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
788:With the teacher who has become one with the Universal Soul, an ego of knowledge is kept, a slight trace to mark their separate existence. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
789:As long as you identify with a 'you' who either is or is not awake, you are still dreaming. Awakening is awakening from the dream of a separate you to simply Being Awakeness. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
790:God, who has the power to raise the dead, is the One who permitted us to die. He who can restore life is the One who permitted men to be killed ~ Saint Peter Chrysologos, Sermons, 1.101)., #KEYS
791:He who discerns the truth as truth and the illusion as an illusion, attains to the truth and is walking in the right road. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
792:He who makes to be heard words without harshness, true and instructive, by which he injures none, he, I say, is a Brahmin. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
793:Man himself, who takes up all that went before him and transmutes it into the term of manhood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
794:People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination, #KEYS
795:The divine power is greater in those who are honored, respected, and obeyed by a large following, than in those who have no such influence. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
796:Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the day of judgment. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
797:Time is death. Who waits, dies. Life is now only. Do not talk to me about past and future - they exist only in your mind. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
798:You talk about heaven and hell, this Mahatma or that one, but how about you? Who are you? ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Consciousness and the Absolute, #KEYS
799:And as long as space endures, As long as there are beings to be found, May I continue likewise to remain To sooth the sufferings of those who live." ~ the Dalai Lama, (b. 1940), Wikipedia., #KEYS
800:As a shadow under a lamp, those in proximity to an Avatar do not understand him. Those who live far off are charmed by his spirit and power. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
801:However beautiful a song may be,
it is just a tune to those
who do not understand its meaning.
~ Jetsun Milarepa, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa,#KEYS
802:I have tried to learn about every system, but I have accepted the true doctrines of the Christians, though these are not approved by those who are held fast by error. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
803:One who has acquired supreme wisdom sees the all-pervading spirit both within and without; he lives, as it were, in a room with glass doors. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
804:Only the man who knows that God lives in his soul, can be humble; such a one is absolutely indifferent to what men say of him. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
805:Use your body and your thought and turn away from anybody who asks you to believe blindly, whatever be his good will or his virtue. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
806:When you are engaged in devotional practices, keep aloof from those who scoff at them, and also from those who ridicule piety and the pious. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
807:Beauty and Mirror and the Eyes which see." ~ Abū Saʿīd Abū'l-Khayr, (967 - 1049), famous Persian Sufi and poet who contributed extensively to the evolution of Sufi tradition, Wikipedia., #KEYS
808:... He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for his time has come to sit in judgment. Worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water." ~ Revelation 14:6-7, #KEYS
809:It can happen that those who act against a tyrant are unable to prevail and the provoked tyrant rages even more ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (De Regno, ch. 7)., #KEYS
810:Others boast of their love for God. My boast is that I did not love God; it was He who loved me and sought me out and forced me to belong to Him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
811:The least indigent mortal is the one who desires the least. We have everything we wish when we wish only for what is sufficient. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
812:The Master of man and his infinite Lover,
He is close to our hearts, had we vision to see. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Who,#KEYS
813:We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, [T5], #KEYS
814:And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Hebrews, 11:6, #KEYS
815:But God's Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in these last times was made a man among men, that he might join the end to the beginning: that is, join man to God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
816:Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
817:I have seen all the snares of the enemy spread out over the world, and I said with a groan, "Who can get through such snares?" Then I heard a voice say to me, "Humility." ~ Anthony the Great, #KEYS
818:Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity." ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
819:We must work together and with the angels to do the things of God, and we must do so in accordance with the Providence of Jesus "who works all things in all" (1 Cor 12:6). ~ Pseudo-Dyonisius, #KEYS
820:At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ M J Ryan, A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles, #KEYS
821:Each being who renounces his self and detaches himself completely from it, hears within this voice and this echo, "I am God. ~ Gulschen Raz, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
822:God has the nature of a small child. God won't even look at those who do tapas with ego, but He will shower His grace on the innocent hearted ones who don't do anything. ~ MATA AMRITANADAMAYI, #KEYS
823:Never ignore a person who loves you, cares for you, and misses you. Because one day, you might wake up from your sleep and realize that you lost the moon while counting the stars. ~ Nico Lang, #KEYS
824:So the believer who imitates Christ becomes as far as permitted the same as Christ whom he imitates. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Galatians, #KEYS
825:It is He in the sun who is ageless and deathless,
And into the midnight His shadow is thrown. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Who,#KEYS
826:It is only the Indian who can believe everything, dare everything, sacrifice everything. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
827:Saint Paul himself and all who have reached the same heights of sanctity had their eyes fixed on Christ, and so have all who live and move and have their being in him. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
828:Take your refuge in truth. Surrender yourself to the Lord. Make your heart and lips the same, and the Lord, who knows the innermost thoughts of our hearts, will protect you. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
829:The hand that sent Jupiter spinning through heaven,
Spends all its cunning to fashion a curl. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Who,#KEYS
830:There is no counting the sheep who are nourished with his abundant love, and who are prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of the good shepherd who died for them. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
831:As humans we make mistakes. The best of us are those who repent, reflect, make changes and better ourselves.. ~ Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
832:elf-control which lies on a man like a fine garment, falls away from him who negligently gives himself up to slumber. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
833:O you who cannot bear to be without this despicable world! How can you bear to be without Him Who spread it as a carpet. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
834:Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. ~ Koran, 39:53 (Yusuf Ali), #KEYS
835:The divine Spirit dwells in every man. How can we make a difference among those who carry in themselves one and the same principle? ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
836:...The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it." ~ Revelation 12:7-9, #KEYS
837:This liberation is attained by him alone who has understood the lesson of complete disinterestedness and forgetfulness of self. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
838:A Guru is a God-knowing person who has been divinely appointed by Him to take the seeker as a disciple and lead him from the darkness of ignorance to the light of wisdom. ~ PARAMAHAMSA YOGANANDA, #KEYS
839:A man may conquer thousands and thousands of men in battle, but he is the greatest conqueror who has mastered himself. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
840:Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything... just give him time to rationalize it.
~ Robert Heinlein, JOB: A Comedy of Justice, (1984).,#KEYS
841:Do not tell this path to all. Only the few who manifest anxiety to know the Truth and an eagerness to find it, should be told. With all others be silent and keep it secret. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
842:He whose senses are not attached to name and form who is no longer troubled by transient things; can be really called a disciple. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
843:I made the journey to knowledge like dogs who go for walks with their masters, a hundred times forward and backward over the same territory; and when I arrived I was tired. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
844:Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, ... ~ Revelation 1:5, #KEYS
845:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
846:On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
847:People who are vitally weak do unconsciously and automatically pull on others. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga #KEYS
848:Those who have only an unformed faith do not believe in his name because they do not work unto salvation ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Jn 1, lect. 6)., #KEYS
849:A God who cannot smile could not have created this humorous universe." ~ Sri Aurobindo, (1872 - 1950) Indian philosopher, yogi, guru, poet, and nationalist, Wikipedia., #KEYS
850:God invisible,...say not so; for who is more apparent than He? That is the goodness of God, that is His virtue, to be apparent in all. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
851:He is not from amongst us who doesnt show respect to the elderly and mercy to the youth. ~ Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him), @Sufi_Path #KEYS
852:He who wishes to acquire the anger that is in accordance with nature must uproot all self-will, until he establishes within himself the state natural to the intellect. ~ Saint Isaiah the Solitary, #KEYS
853:It is the Divine Grace that must be prayed for-if justice were to manifest, very few would be those who could stand in front of it.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
854:Such are they who have not acquired self-knowledge, men who vaunt their science, are proud of their wisdom, vain of their riches. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
855:The Church does not consist in a great number of persons. He who possesses the Truth at his side is the church, though he be alone. ~ Ibn Masnd, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
856:When darkness was blind and engulfed within darkness,
He was seated within it immense and alone. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Who,#KEYS
857:All debts must be paid. All that one has inflicted one has to suffer, before one can become free. So those who wish for freedom can only say: Let what comes come; I will accept it. ~ Rodney Collin, #KEYS
858:Fire will descend from heaven and humanity will be purified and completely renewed, so as to be ready to receive the Lord Jesus who will return to you in glory." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
859:Gratitude: it is you who open all the closed doors and let the Grace which saves penetrate deeply.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Gratitude and Faithfulness, [T5],#KEYS
860:One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, No Propaganda or Proselytism, #KEYS
861:Poet, who first with skill inspired did teach
Greatness to our divine Bengali speech. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Madhusudan Dutt,#KEYS
862:[The Lord] teaches us to make prayer in common for all our brethren. For he did not say my Father who art in heaven, but our Father, offering petitions for the common body. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
863:Today every creature shouts in resounding song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes in every age, for this is not his first coming. ~ Proclus of Constantinople, #KEYS
864:Truth is seen in itself, while God reveals it to us through the ministry of angels who 'see the face of the Father' ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Mt. 18:10)(ScG 4.1)., #KEYS
865:Do not sleep too long. How can a spiritual aspirant sleep away his life? He cannot. He must keep waking - who knows when God will come? The higher the life, the less the sleep. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
866:Love immense and infinite, broad as the sky and deep as the ocean—this is the one great gain in life. Blessed is he who gets it. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 144), #KEYS
867:The word is the Guru, The Guru is the Word, For all nectar is enshrined in the world Blessed is the word which reveal the Lord's name But more is the one who knows by the Guru's grace. ~ Guru Nanak, #KEYS
868:What is prema? He who feels it, this intense and ecstatic love of God, not only forgets the world but forgets even the body, which is so dear to all. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
869:Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
870:Everyone who remembers his own educational experience remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the kingpin of the educational situation. ~ Sidney Hook, Education for Modern Man, #KEYS
871:He poured forth his gifts on them all but most abundantly on us who have taken refuge in his compassion through our Lord Jesus Christ, to who be glory and majesty forever and ever. ~ Clement of Rome, #KEYS
872:He who relieves us of sin is Hari. He relieves us of our three afflictions in the world. Chaitanya preached the glory of Hari's name; it must be good. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
873:None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness, #KEYS
874:No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed. ~ Sigmund Freud, #KEYS
875:Schismatics properly so called are those who willfully and intentionally separate themselves from the unity of the Church ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.39.1ad3)., #KEYS
876:We who are weak and poor ought not to despair because we are fervent at times and at other times cold, for the spirit comes and goes according to His will. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
877:When the man who does good, ceases to concern himself with the result of his act, ambition and wrath are extinguished within him. ~ Lalita Vistara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
878:He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #KEYS
879:No one who hasn't experienced for himself at least something of the nature and joys of the spiritual life can have any valid opinion on the subject." ~ Krisna Prem, (Ronald Henry Nixon, 1898 - 1965), #KEYS
880:There is no one who is without faults, and who is not in some way a burden to others, whether he is a superior or a subject, an old man or a young one, a scholar or a dunce. ~ Saint Robert Bellarmine, #KEYS
881:Those who shall part who have grown one being within?
Death's grip can break our bodies, not our souls; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Word of Fate,#KEYS
882:If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
883:The Church teaches, "Mary is truly 'Mother of God' since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself." ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (CCC 509), #KEYS
884:To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
885:he man who has conquered his unreined desires, offers no hold to sorrow; it glides over him like water over the leaves of the lotus. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
886:Sadhana [means] the practice by which perfection, Siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the Siddhi.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 45,#KEYS
887:There are people that can't go to Fantastica. There are those who can but never return. And there are just a few who go to Fantastica and come back. And they make both worlds well again. ~ Michael Ende, #KEYS
888:Forewilled by the gods, Alexander,
All things happen on earth and yet we must strive who are mortals, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
889:For thirty years I went in Search of God, and when I opened my eyes at the end of this time, I discovered that it was really He who sought me…" ~ Bayazid Bistami, (804-874), a Persian Sufi, Wikipedia., #KEYS
890:He has read everything, learned everything, practised everything, who has renounced his desires and lives without any straining of hope. ~ Hitopadesha, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
891:O Thou who climb'dst to mind from the dull stone,
Face now the miracled summits still unwon. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Evolution - II,#KEYS
892:The Mother of all godheads and all strengths
Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Adoration of the Divine Mother,#KEYS
893:The Spirit prepares mankind for the Son of God, the Son leads it to God, and God gives it the gift of incorruptible eternal life, a life that everyone receives who sees God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
894:Before the baptism, let him who baptizeth and him who is baptized fast previously, and any others who may be able. And thou shalt command him who is baptized to fast one or two days before. ~ The Didache, #KEYS
895:God, before He comes to the heart, sends servants to make it ready for His coming. And who are those servants? Purity, chastity, humility, loving-kindness. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
896:Hasteners to action, violators of God
Are these great spirits who have too much love. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
897:He alone enters the Kingdom of Heaven who is not a thief of his own thoughts. In other words, guilelessness and simple faith are the roads to that Kingdom. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
898:He who is alone uncreated is then by that very fact unrevealed and invisible, but, manifesting all things, He reveals Himself in them and by them. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
899:A person of wisdom is not one who practices Buddhism apart from worldly affairs but, rather, one who thoroughly understands the principles by which the world is governed. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
900:Foemen! they are our playmates in the fight
And should be dear as friends who share our hours
Of closeness and desire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
901:To keep one's discrimination alert is a great austerity. He who has learned to discriminate can successfully overcome lust and greed. So, cultivate your discrimination and conscience. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
902:To know all is an impossible dream; but woe unto him who dares not to learn all, and who does not know that, in order to know anything, one must learn eternally!
~ Eliphas Levi, The Key of The Mysteries,#KEYS
903:Who hug their lot and mock the saviour Light
And see in Mind wisdom's sole tabernacle, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
904:Faith is essentially and chiefly about God Who is the very truth, and secondarily about creatures in which God's truth is reflected ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.89.6)., #KEYS
905:Make a conscious effort to surround yourself with positive, nourishing, and uplifting people - people who believe in you, encourage you to go after your dreams, and applaud your victories." ~ Jack Canfield, #KEYS
906:Man, if thou wouldst discover in the crowd the friends of God, observe simply those who carry love in their hearts and in their hands. ~ Angeles Silesins, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
907:One who is sad does not easily console another person: "A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Prov. 10:1)., #KEYS
908:Someone who tasted the sweetness of being close to Allah, will surely find bitter anything that may distant him from Allah." ~ al-Habib Omar bin Hafiz, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
909:The man in whose vision all things are becomings of the Self and who sees in all things oneness, whence shall he have grief or delusion? ~ Isha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
910:Those who are not happy internally can never be happy externally; those who are not happy within themselves can never make others happy. Those who do not love themselves can never love others. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
911:When asked "Who I Am', the only answer possible is: I am the infinite, the vastness that is the substance of all things. I am no one and everyone, nothing and everything - just as you are." ~ Suzanne Segal, #KEYS
912:Eternal Presence
[facsimile]
Sri Aurobindo is constantly among us and reveals himself to those who are ready to see and hear him.
*
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T5],#KEYS
913:Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the Source from which they all rise. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Ramana, #KEYS
914:He who abstains from all violence towards beings, to the weak as to the strong, who kills not and makes not to kill, he, I say, is a Brahmin. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
915:Only one who has surmounted by wisdom that which the world calls good and evil and who lives in a clear light, can be truly called an ascetic ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
916:The future is for those who have the soul of a hero. The stronger and more sincere our faith, the more powerful and effective will be the help received.
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
917:The One Spirit who has mirrored some of His modes of being in the world and in the soul, is multiple in the Jiva. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
918:The truly religious man is he, who does not commit any sin even when he is alone, and when no man observes him, because he feels, that God sees him even then. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
919:As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing his glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
920:He was not far from it [creation] before, for no part of creation had ever been without him who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. ~ Athanasius, On the Incarnation 8, #KEYS
921:Mother, What is the rationale of Divine Grace? Is not the Supreme Mother always ready with Her Grace for those who can call it down?
Yes.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
922:Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendor. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
923:A heretic who disbelieves a single article of the Faith does not have either the habit of formed faith or the habit of unformed faith ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.5.3sc)., #KEYS
924:Beyond fugitive Time reigns in the silence the kingdom of the Permanent. O happy he who conquers here and penetrates into the country of peace! ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
925:Heroism is not what people say, it is to be completely united - and the divine help will always be with those who have, in all sincerity, resolved to be heroic. Voilà.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
926:If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you" ~ Romans 8:11)., #KEYS
927:O Thou who hast hidden thyself behind a veil, withdraw that veil at last, so that my soul may not consume itself in the search for Thee. ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
928:Pray, 'Thou our Father, our Mother, our dearest Friend ! Thou who bearest this universe, help us to bear the little burden of this our life.' ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 91), #KEYS
929:The very best happens always to those who have put their entire trust in the Divine and in the Divine alone.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Trust in the Divine Grace and Help,#KEYS
930:When God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return. The sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
931:When God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
932:... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord." ~ Our Lady of Akita (1973), #KEYS
933:Faith is the unshaken stance of the soul and is unmoved by any adversity. The believing man is not one who thinks God can do all things, but one who trusts that he will obtain everything. ~ Saint John Climacus, #KEYS
934:Gods who know not grief
And look impassive on a suffering world,
Calm they gaze down on the little human scene ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Word of Fate,#KEYS
935:He who has merely heard of milk is 'ignorant'. He who has seen milk has 'knowledge'. But he who has drunk milk and been strengthened by it has attained vijnāna. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
936:The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, color-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I have read. He should also be about my age. ~ Anthony Burgess, #KEYS
937:We shall incur no slight injury but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
938:When on high the heaven had not been named, firm ground below had not been called by name, naught but primordial waters, their begetter, and Mother Tiamat, she who bore them all. ~ Enuma Elish, When on high, 1, #KEYS
939:A person's soul should be clean, like a mirror reflecting light. If there is rust on the mirror his face cannot be seen in it. In the same way, no one who has sin within him can see God. ~ Theophilus of Antioch, #KEYS
940:As for withdrawal of Grace, it might be said that few are those from whom the Grace withdraws, but many are those who withdraw from the Grace.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
941:Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom...and that freedom must not be compromised. It must be available to all who need it, when they need it, and that's always. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #KEYS
942:Let us work for the food which does not perish - our salvation. Let us work in the vineyard of the Lord to earn our daily wage in the wisdom which says: Those who work in me will not sin. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
943:Liberty is a goddess who is exacting in her demands on her votaries, but, if they are faithful, she never disappoints them of their reward. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, The Elections, #KEYS
944:People who have read a good deal rarely make great discoveries. I do not say this in excuse of laziness, but because invention presupposes an extensive independent contemplation of things. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
945:The earth is full of adverse forces and of men who respond to these adverse forces; usually, the more one realises the Divine, the more enemies does he have around himself. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
946:The traveller in the valley of knowledge who sees the end of each thing, knows how to find peace amid contest and reconciliation amidst disunion. ~ Baha ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
947:A man is not a master because he despotically subjects being living at his mercy. He can be called a master who has compassion for all that lives. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
948:Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
949:Let not him then who cannot enter into the chamber of hidden treasure complain that he is poor and has no part in these riches. ~ J. Tauler, "Institutions." 27, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
950:Everyone who is intent upon surviving with worth and dignity, and living rather than passively accepting life, must sooner or later pass through the agonies of emergent consciousness ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
951:Happy is he who nourishes himself with these good words and shuts them up in his heart. He shall always be one of the wise. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
952:Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that's where the light is. It has no other choice. ~ Noam Chomsky, #KEYS
953:Ah! let us live happy without desires among those who are given up to covetousness. In the midst of men full of desires, let us dwell empty of them. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
954:Disquietude and depression create an unhelpful atmosphere for one who is ill or in difficulties. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga, #KEYS
955:He who always thinks himself as weak will never become strong, but he who knows himself to be a lion, rushes out from the worlds meshes, as a lion from its cage. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
956:He who would save himself lives bare and calm;
He who would save the race must share its pain: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
957:John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. ~ Saint Augstine, Sermo 293.3 (PL 1328-1329), #KEYS
958:o living being possessed by desire can escape from sorrow. Those who have full understanding of this truth, conceive a hatred for desire. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsau-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
959:The act done under right rule, with detachment, without liking or dislike, by the man who grasps not at the fruit, that is a work of light. ~ Bhagavad Gita 18.23, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
960:The food that has been made the Eucharist by the prayer of His word, and which nourishes our flesh and blood by assimilation, is both the flesh and the blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
961:The man who has conquered himself and is tranquillised, remains fixed in his highest self, whether in pleasure or pain, in honour or in disgrace. ~ Bhagavad Gita, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
962:The sage should be figured in the image of a robust athlete whom long exercise has hardened, one who can baffle the efforts of the most obstinate enemy. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
963:When they tell thee that thou must not search everywhere for truth, believe them not. Those who speak thus are thy most formidable enemies-and Truth's. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
964:Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
965:But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in the light
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, [T5],#KEYS
966:Don't speak ill of anyone. It is Narayana Himself who has assumed all these forms. One can worship even a wicked person. But God dwells in a special way in His devotee. The devotee is His parlour. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
967:God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother's womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans ~ Galatians 1:15)., #KEYS
968:He who meditates well attains power to work more efficiently. He is never tired, because his energy is not mis-spent in any way; he is never annoyed nor worried, he is not attached to anything. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
969:Make speed, all of you, to one temple of God, to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from the one and only Father, is eternally with that One, and to that One is now returned. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
970:When thou lookest up to heaven and gazest at the beauty of the stars, pray to the Lord of the visible world; pray to God the Arch-artificer of the universe, Who in wisdom hath made them all. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
971:All alters in a world that is the same.
Man most must change who is a soul of Time;
His gods too change and live in larger light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act V,#KEYS
972:And we cannot achieve this health except through the physician of our souls, Jesus Christ, 'who shall save His people from their sins' ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Mt. 1:21)(ScG 4.72)., #KEYS
973:Beneath the person lies, even in us, that "wholly other", whose profundities, impenetrable to any concept, can yet be grasped in the numinous self-feeling by one who has experience of the deeper life. ~ Rudolph Otto, #KEYS
974:Happiness only comes when you let go of who you think you are. If you think you're wealthy and powerful and noble and truthful or horrible and demonic, whatever it may be, it's all a waste of time." ~ Frederick Lenz, #KEYS
975:He who learns must suffer. Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. ~ Aeschylus,#KEYS
976:If thou say, "Who is the Ancient and most Holy?" come then and see,-it is the supreme head, unknowable, inaccessible, indefinable, and it contains all. ~ The Zohar, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
977:Someone who knew nothing but creatures never need to attend to any sermons for every creature is full of God and is a book. ~ Meister Eckhart, Sermon 67 (Pf 84, Q 9, QT 10; Walshe, 345), #KEYS
978:The self is master of the self; what other master can it have? The sage who has made himself master of himself, rends his bonds and breaks his chains. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
979:The small man builds cages for everyone he knows
While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the beautiful rowdy prisoners. ~ Hafiz,#KEYS
980:What is the best method to find the Divine who is in each of us and in all things?
Aspiration. Silence. Concentration in the solar plexus region.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
981:Woe to those who despise devotion to Mary! ... The soul cannot live without having recourse to Mary and recommending itself to her. He falls and is lost who does not have recourse to Mary." ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
982:Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
983:Believe me, the Lord is always with you. If you practice a little, He will extend His helping hand to you. It is He who is protecting us all from miseries and troubles. How unbounded is His grace! ~ Swami Brahmananda, #KEYS
984:But the higher you raise yourself, the smaller you will seem to the eyes that are envious. He who ranges on the heights is the one whom men most detest. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
985:For instance, it is good to receive the Eucharist, and yet one who receives the Eucharist unworthily "eats and drinks a judgment unto himself" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1 Cor 11:29)., #KEYS
986:God's will is both in worldliness and freedom. It is He, who has kept you unconscious in worldly life. And again, at His will, when He calls you, you will be liberated. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
987:Hail to Thee, to Thee, Spirit of the Supreme Spirit, Soul of souls, to Thee, the visible and invisible, who art one with Time and with the elements. ~ Vishnu Purana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
988:Man at his highest is a half-god who has risen up out of the animal Nature and is splendidly abnormal in it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation, #KEYS
989:The entire world, from its beginning to end, is nothing more than the dream of a man, who becomes captivated by what he sees, only to awaken and find that it was nothing (fa idhā lā shayy). ~ Umar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb #KEYS
990:There are, of course, few Probationers who understand themselves sufficiently to be able to formulate this will to themselves, and therefore at the end of their probation they choose a new name.
~ Aleister Crowley?,#KEYS
991:Woe to you experts in the law [nomikois], because you have taken away the key to knowledge [gnosis]. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 11:52, #KEYS
992:Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life? ~ Jean Piaget, #KEYS
993:He's creator
Who greatly handles great material,
Calls order out of the abundant deep,
Not who invents sweet shadows out of air. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
994:Keep company with those who remind you of God, and seek approval of those who counsel not with the tongue of words but the tongue of deeds." ~ Ibn Khafif, (died 981/982) a Persian mystic and sufi from Iran, Wikipedia., #KEYS
995:The ostrich, which cannot fly but is always close to the ground, signifies those who fight for God and entangle themselves in secular business ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.206.1)., #KEYS
996:Those who lead an unregulated life and think impure thoughts lose their powers and strength of mind. They are at the mercy of passing desires and the feverish cravings of the senses and are slaves. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
997:We are not our stages; we are not the self who hangs in the balance at this moment in our evolution. We are the activity of this evolution. We compose our stages, and we experience this composing. ~ Robert Kegan, 1982, #KEYS
998:Who goeth into the next world undelivered from death, even as here death respecteth nothing, so in that world too shall he be its perpetual prey. ~ atapatha Brahmana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
999:And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Peter, 5:10,#KEYS
1000:As Augustine says, the principal error regarding divine things is the mistake of those who try transfer to them what they know of the corporeal world ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DT 6.2)., #KEYS
1001:Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was completed of their fellow-servants and brothers who were still to be killed as they had been." ~ Revelation 6:11, #KEYS
1002:For, adds Barba, those who think that metals were created at the beginning of of the world are grossly mistaken: metals 'grow' in mines. ~ Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy, #KEYS
1003:He who practises wisdom without anger or covetousness, who fulfils with fidelity his vows and lives master of himself, he is indeed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1004:Ignorance means, not to see the good. Not to see the truth is ignorance. Those who don't see it are ignorant people. ~ Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani Al-Naqshabandi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1005:Inwardly, the man who does not destroy his lower self-formations, cannot rise to a greater existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer, #KEYS
1006:Like mud in a mud pot the Supreme Lord who is existence and space-like consciousness and bliss exists everywhere non-separate (from things). ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Yoga Vasistha, 10.12, #KEYS
1007:Look to me, beloved sons and you who are consecrated to me, in the great battle which you are fighting, under the orders of your heavenly Leader. I am the Woman clothed with the sun." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
1008:None but God is loved in the existent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover - and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
1009:Surya Savitri, who is Bhaga, stands between the Infinite and the created worlds within us and without. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Selected Hymns, To Bhaga Savitri - the Enjoyer, #KEYS
1010:The world is an eternal present, and the present is now; what was is no more and who can say whatwill come or whether tomorrow morning the dawnwill arise. ~ Anamander, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1011:Those who pray and suffer, leaving action for others, will not shine here on earth; but what a radiant crown they will wear in the kingdom of life! Blessed be the 'apostolate of suffering'!" ~ Saint Josemaría Escrivá, #KEYS
1012:You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
1013:A single day of life of the man who stimulates himself by an act of energy, is of more value than a hundred years passed in norchalance and indolence. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1014:Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it. ~ G.I. Gurdjieff, #KEYS
1015:Leader here with his uncertain mind,
Alone who stares at the future's covered face,
Man lifted up the burden of his fate. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Symbol Dawn,#KEYS
1016:The perceptible world is even like some communal book tied to creation by a chain so that anyone who wishes may read in it the wisdom of God. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Monastic Sermons (Sermon 9 'Concnerning Romans 1:20'), #KEYS
1017:There is no more important rule of conduct in the world than this: attach yourself as much as you can to people who are abler than you and yet not so very different that you cannot understand them. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1018:He who is blind revolts and he who is limited struggles:
Strife is not for the infinite; wisdom observes to accomplish. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1019:He whose senses have become calm like horses perfectly tamed by a driver, who has rid himself of pride and concupiscence, the gods themselves envy his lot. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1020:I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
1021:Why was not man created good from the beginning?
It is not God who made man wicked. It is man who makes himself wicked by separating himself from God.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1022:410. Others boast of their love for God. My boast is that I did not love God; it was He who loved me and sought me out and forced me to belong to Him.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
1023:A sharp mind will find a truth for itself.
A humble spirit will find a truth higher than itself.
Truth is not the property of intellectuals, but of those who know how to escape their own selves. ~ Rabbi Tzvi Freeman,#KEYS
1024:Avoid the society of evil friends and men of vulgar minds; have pleasure in that of the giants of wisdom and take as thy friends those who practice justice. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1025:I am the good shepherd. I know my own - I love them - and my own know me. In plain words: those who love me are willing to follow me, for anyone who does not love the truth has not yet come to know it. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1026:I am the inviolable Ecstasy;
They who have looked on me, shall grieve no more. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
1027:I have never heard of a Yogin who got the peace of God and turned away from it as something poor, neutral and pallid, rushing back to cakes and ale.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Poetry And Art,#KEYS
1028:It is impossible for man who has a body to abstain absolutely from all action, but whoever; renounces its fruits, is the man of true renunciation. ~ Bhagavad Gita. 18.11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1029:Leave inimical thoughts aside if you want to have permanent Bhakti. Hatred is a thing which greatly impedes the course of Bhakti, and the man who hates none reaches God. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1030:Oh thou! who art free of notion, imagination, and duality, We are all bellows in the ocean of eternity." ~ Binavali, a sufi of the 17th century. From "The Religion of the Sufis : From The Dabistan of Mohsin Fani,", (1979), #KEYS
1031:Reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engeineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world. ~ Terence McKenna, #KEYS
1032:Someone who's free ought not to learn any learnable thing slavishly. Forced labor performed by the body doesn't make the body any worse, but no forced study abides in a soul. ~ Plato, Republic vii.536e, #KEYS
1033:Speak the truth, do not abandon yourself to wrath, give of the little you have to those who seek your aid. By these three steps you shall approach the Gods. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1034:There is no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1035:Thou who pervadest all the worlds below,
Yet sitst above,
Master of all who work and rule and know,
Servant of Love! ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, God,#KEYS
1036:He is the perfect athlete who surmounts temptations and the incline of his nature towards sin and exercises over his mind domination and empire. ~ J. Tauler. Institutions, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1037:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
1038:His human self like a translucent cloak
Covered the All-Wise who leads the unseeing world.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King The Yoga of the Souls Release,#KEYS
1039:In the actual state of humanity, it is the individual who must climb to this height as a pioneer and precursor. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, #KEYS
1040:It is enough to call on Him with sincerity of heart. If the devotee is sincere, then God, who is the Inner Guide of all, will certainly reveal to the devotee His true nature. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1041:It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
1042:Polish-Lithuanian monk and archeparch of the Ruthenian Catholic Church, who on 12 November 1623 was killed by an angry mob in Vitebsk, Vitebsk Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian. ~ Saint Josaphat of Polotsk, (1580-1623), #KEYS
1043:The sufi opens his hands to the universe and gives away each instant, free. Unlike someone who begs on the street for money to survive, a dervish begs to give you his life." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1044:To read too much is bad for thought. The greatest thinkers I have met among the savants whom I have studied were precisely those who were the least learned. ~ Liehtemberg, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1045:As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." ~ Carl Jung, (1875 - 1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1046:Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer, #KEYS
1047:Having studied books, the sage uniquely consecrated to knowledge and wisdom, should leave books completely aside as a man who wants the rice abandons the husk. ~ Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1048:Horoscopes have no importance for those who take up yoga, because the influence that works through yoga is much more powerful than the influence of the stars.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
1049:The Jiva cannot really become master except in proportion as he arrives at oneness with the Divine who is his supreme Self. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Action of the Divine Shakti, #KEYS
1050:The real enemies of God are those who set themselves deliberately against God, in order to lead all humanity to live without Him; it is they who are persecuting the Church more and more." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
1051:Thy heart that needs
Some human answering heart against thy breast;
For who, being mortal, can dwell glad alone? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
1052:To avoid the company of fools, to take pleasure in being among the intelligent, to venerate those who are worthy of veneration, is a great blessedness. ~ Mahamangala Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1053:When he says: 'Break into shouts of joy, you who never knew a mother's pangs', he means that we should not grow weary like women in labour, but tirelessly and in all simplicity offer our prayers to God. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
1054:You must have learned principles so firmly that when your desires, your appetites or your fears awaken like barking dogs, the logos will speak with the voice of a master who silences the dogs by a single command. ~ Plutarch, #KEYS
1055:At the service of the Divine we are; it is the Divine who decides, ordains and puts in motion, directs and accomplishes the action. With my blessings. ~ The Mother, Mantras of the Mother, 25 December, #KEYS
1056:But as we cannot love what is outside ourselves, we must love a being who is in us and who is not ourselves. Now it is only the universal Being who is such an one. ~ Pascal, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1057:Even as death shall gather us all for memory's clusters,
All in their day who were great or were little, heroes or cowards. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1058:He is the soul of all conscious creatures, who constitutes all things in this world, those which are beyond our senses and those which fall within their range. ~ Aswaghosha, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1059:Led or misled we are mortals and walk by a light that is given;
Most they err who deem themselves most from error excluded. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1060:Thou who art the soul of all things, Thy universal diffusion witnesses to Thy power and goodness. It is in thee, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. ~ Vishnu Purana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1061:To those who want to practise the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things: 1) Sexual intercourse 2) Smoking 3) Drinking alcohol
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T1],#KEYS
1062:Birth in the body is the most close, divine and effective form of help which the liberated can give to those who are themselves still bound. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Knowledge and Ignorance, #KEYS
1063:But what a force is that of the sage who can live at peace with men without having the mobility of water and remain in the midst of them firm and incorruptible ! ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1064:He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins... ~ Maximus the Confessor, Third Century on Love no. 55, #KEYS
1065:He who has conquered the desire of the present life and of the future life, who has vanquished all fear and broken all chain, he is indeed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1066:He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing." ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
1067:In everyone's life - at some time - our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~ Albert Schweitzer, #KEYS
1068:Jesus has chosen to show me the only way which leads to the Divine Furnace of love; it is the way of childlike self-surrender, the way of a child who sleeps, afraid of nothing, in its father's arms. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1069:Ordinary people are friendly with those who are outwardly similar to them. The wise are friendly with those who are inwardly similar to them." ~ Sufi saying, from "Sacred Laughter of the Sufis,", (2014), ed. Imam Jamal Rahman, #KEYS
1070:The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary. ~ Saint Anselm, 'Beata Virgo Maria', #KEYS
1071:The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 9:9-10, #KEYS
1072:The overcoming of the sex instinct and impulse is indeed binding on all who would attain to self-mastery and lead the spiritual life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
1073:Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion . . . we have ordained that they fulfill ten years of penance. ~ Council of Ancyra (AD 314)., #KEYS
1074:He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. ~ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, l. 177, #KEYS
1075:It is indeed the tyrant who is seditious and who feeds discord and sedition among the people subject to him, so that he can more safely dominate them ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.42.2ad3)., #KEYS
1076:The Sufi is one that does what others do — when it is necessary. He is also one who does what others cannot do — when it is indicated." ~ Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani, (963 - 1033) one of the master Sufis of Islam, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1077:Through creation itself the Word reveals God the Creator. Through the world he reveals the Lord who made the world. Through all that is fashioned he reveals the craftsman who fashioned it all. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies IV.6, #KEYS
1078:For grief and pain
Are errors of the clouded soul; behind
They do not stain
The living spirit who to these is blind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Rishi,#KEYS
1079:Holiness had to be brought to man by the humanity assumed by one who was God, so that God might overcome the tyrant by force and so deliver us and lead us back to himself through the mediation of his Son. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1080:I am the inviolable Ecstasy;
They who have looked on me, shall grieve no more.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day The Souls Choice and the Supreme Consummation, [T5],#KEYS
1081:Just as someone who runs at two different times is said to run twice, so can He be said to be born twice who is born once from ETERNITY and once in TIME ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.35.2ad4)., #KEYS
1082:Occult masters of destiny,
They who sit in the Secrecy
And watch unmoved ever
Unto the end of all. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Winged with Dangerous Deity,#KEYS
1083:Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, ... " ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226), #KEYS
1084:The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another, one which will last forever…" ~ Anatole France, (1844-1924), a French poet, journalist, and successful novelist with several best-sellers, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1085:These are they who were not defiled with women; they are virgins and these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the firstfruits of the human race for God and the Lamb." ~ Revelation 14:4, #KEYS
1086:All the kingdoms of this world are worth nothing to me. It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to be king over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for our sake, I desire him who rose for us. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1087:Analogic vision precedes all real knowledge. Only those who perceive similarities between things and events are able to work with concepts.… To grasp essential similarities means to perceive primal phenomena. ~ Robert Spaemann, #KEYS
1088:Do not become the kind of person who stretches out his hands to receive, but pulls them back when it comes to giving. If you have anything through the work of your hands, you can give it away as a ransom for your sins. ~ Didache, #KEYS
1089:For God, it is the most beautiful and best part of his illustriousness and his glory to be able to create, because it is precisely in that way that we know who and what he is. ~ Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 538b, #KEYS
1090:He is in truth the man of piety who is dead even in his lifetime, that is to say, whose passions and desires have been destroyed and are like a body that is dead. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1091:If you will you can be healed. Hand yourself over to the doctor, and he will open the eyes of your mind and heart. Who is to be the doctor? It is God, who heals and gives life through his Word and wisdom. ~ Theophilus of Antioch, #KEYS
1092:Met the hounds of bale who hunt men's hearts
Baying across the veldts of Destiny, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness,#KEYS
1093:Of one hundred persons who take up the spiritual life, eighty turn out to be charlatans, fifteen insane, and only five, maybe, get a glimpse of the real truth. Therefore beware ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1094:Someone who looks down from such a peak will become dizzy, and so too I become dizzy when I look down from the high peak of these words of the Lord: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
1095:The self is the master of the self, what other master of it canst thou have? The wise man who has made himself the master of himself, is a world-illumining beacon. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1096:This mental being in the inner heart who has the truth and the light is the lord and sovereign of all; he who knows it, governs all this that is. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad V.6, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1097:We give the adoration of "latria" to the image of Christ, Who is true God, not for the sake of the image, but for the sake of the thing whose image it is ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.25.3ad2)., #KEYS
1098:Although it was primarily to Peter that he said: Feed my sheep, yet the one Lord guides all the pastors in the discharge of their office and leads to rich and fertile pastures all those who come to the rock. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
1099:As thou wrappest thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1100:Immortality for imperfect man,
A god who hurts himself at every step,
Would be a cycle of eternal pain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal,#KEYS
1101:It is the Holy Spirit who effects with water the second birth, as a certain seed of divine generation. It is a consecration of a heavenly birth and the pledge of a promised inheritance. ~ Novation, Treatise Concerning the Trinity, #KEYS
1102:Sin is seducing the minds and hearts of many of my children. Many are giving in to the allurements of pleasures and falling into slavery to Satan, who has succeeded in seducing the whole earth." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
1103:That which was revealed to Moses in the bush, we see accomplished here and strange manner. The Virgin bore Fire within her, yet was not consumed, when she gave birth to the Benefactor Who brings us light. ~ Saint John of Damascus, #KEYS
1104:The Lord can rescue the good from the ordeal, and hold the wicked for their punishment until the day of Judgement, especially those who are governed by their corrupt bodily desires and have no respect for authority. ~ 2 Peter 2:9, #KEYS
1105:The man who knows the principles of right reason is less than the man who loves them and he less then the man who makes of them his delight and practices them ~ Confucius:Lun-yu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1106:There is no nature to which God is visible: he is not a being who is visible by nature, but escaped or baffled the view of a frailer creature; by the nature of his being it is impossible for him to be seen. ~ Origen of Alexandria, #KEYS
1107:Who in the world of plurality sees the One Existence and in the world of shadows seizes this Reality, to him belongs the eternal peace, to none else, to none else. ~ Vivekananda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1108:Control lust. Don't permit it to increase. Always pay attention so that lust does not crop up. It is an enemy that places obstacles on the path of one's sadhana. He who has conquered lust has reached the goal. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1109:I ascribe to Mark Twain's theory that the last person who should be President is the one who wants it the most. The one who should be picked is the one who should be dragged kicking and screaming into the White House. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
1110:I don't think there is such a thing as
an intelligent mega-rich
person.
For who with a fine mind can look
out upon this world and
hoard
what can nourish
a thousand
souls. ~ Kabir,#KEYS
1111:Man cannot teach by his own power. One cannot conquer ignorance without the power of God. He who teaches men gets his power from God. None but a man of renunciation can teach others. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1112:Not as the ways of other mortals are theirs who are guided,
They whose eyes are the gods and they walk by a light that is secret. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1113:The paralytic at the pool was waiting for someone. Who was this if not the Lord Jesus, born of a virgin? At his coming it is not a question of a shadow healing an individual, but Truth himself healing the universe. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1114:Who has made the Divine?
Himself.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, Letters, Messages and Other Short Written Statements, The Divine and the Universe, The Universe: Manifestation of the Divine,#KEYS
1115:As those who have lived long made one in love
Need word nor sign for heart's reply to heart,
He met and communed without bar of speech ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Soul,#KEYS
1116:But the man who bringeth not by his own movement on living beings the pains of slavery and death and who desireth the good of all creatures, attaineth to happiness. ~ Laws of Manu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1117:However much their systems of philosophy and religion may differ, all mankind stand in reverence and awe before the man who is ready to sacrifice himself for others. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 86), #KEYS
1118:Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs." ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
1119:The great doors remain closed, but the spring fragrance comes inside anyway, and no one sees what takes place there. Men and women who have entered through both doors at once will understand this poem." ~ Kabir, #KEYS
1120:The Son is that day to whom the day, which is the Father, communicates the mystery of his divinity. He is the day who says through the mouth of Solomon: "I have caused an unfailing light to rise in heaven." ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
1121:But how can we who neglect ourselves be able to correct someone else? We are wrapped up in worldly concerns, and the more we devote ourselves to external things, the more insensitive we become in spirit. ~ Pope St. Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1122:Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1123:When you raise yourself beyond praise and blame and your will, the will of a man who loves, intends to be master of all things, then for you is the beginning of virtue. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1124:But there is not, neither shall there be, in the Church of God a teaching such as that which can make One who is single and incomposite not only multiform and patchwork, but also the combination of opposites. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
1125:In the man who keeps no watch over his conduct, desire extends itself like a creeper. It wanders hither and thither like the monkey running in the forest after a fruit. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1126:Kindness is twice blessed. It blesses the one who gives it with a sense of his or her own capacity to love, and the person who receives it with a sense of the beneficence of the universe." ~ Dawna Markova. See: https://bit.ly/3iZwmrI, #KEYS
1127:One who wants his Yoga to be a path of peace or joy, must be prepared to dwell in his soul rather than in his outer mental and emotional nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Lower Vital Being, #KEYS
1128:The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace: for thus says the Apostle, "He is our peace, who made both one"; because whether we are Jew or Gentile, "through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father." ~ Pope Leo the Great, #KEYS
1129:The rational fool is the person who makes short-term decisions for their own benefit, failing to consider the effects their actions have on others." ~ A. C. Ping, from "DO", (2004), For more info on A. C. Ping: https://bit.ly/2G3F4WC, #KEYS
1130:To those who accuse us of a doctrine of three gods, let it be stated that we confess one God, not in number but in nature. For what is said to be one numerically is not one absolutely, nor is it simple in nature. ~ Evagrius of Pontus, #KEYS
1131:What is Truth and who can find her form
Amid the specious images of sense,
Amid the crowding guesses of the mind ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
1132:Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart…. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens." ~ Carl Jung, (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1133:Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself." ~ C. S. Lewis, p. 78, #KEYS
1134:Attempts to wake before our time are often punished, especially by those who love us most. Because they, bless them, are asleep…" ~ R.D. Laing, (1927 - 1989), Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1135:For even he who is most greedy for knowledge can achieve no greater perfection than to be thoroughly aware of his own ignorance in his particular field. The more be known, the more aware he will be of his ignorance. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, #KEYS
1136:He who aspires to the true and eternal glory cares nothing for the glory of the age. He who is indifferent to praise or blame enjoys a great serenity of spirit. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1137:Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labour in one single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall. ~ Saint Xanthias, #KEYS
1138:Most people who have not knowledge are apt to be opinionated—they have their ideas and don't want them to be changed or their fixity disturbed. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Thought and Knowledge, #KEYS
1139:No matter how sophisticated or powerful our thinking machines become, there still will be two kinds of people : those who let the machines do their thinking, for them, and those who tell the machines what to think about.
~ C J Lewis,#KEYS
1140:Nothing is equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult, easy.... For it is impossible, utterly impossible, for the man who prays eagerly and invokes God ceaselessly ever to sin. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1141:The fruit of coveting and desire ripens in sorrow; pleasant at first it soon burns, as a torch burns the hand of the fool who has not in time cast it from him. ~ Sutra in 42 articles, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1142:The holy scripture needs no explanation. He who speaks truth, is full of eternal life, his written word seems wonderfully akin to the mysteries, for it is a chord taken from the symphony of the universe. ~ Novalis, The Novices of Sais, #KEYS
1143:This prince shall extend his dominion over the entire universe. At the same time there will be a Great Pope, who will be the most eminent in sanctity and most perfect in every quality." ~ Saint Caesarius of Arles, (c. 468 - d. 542 AD), #KEYS
1144:would bring back to the world (if such a church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer." ~ Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, 15 August, 1910, #KEYS
1145:Ask your Lord for a physician who can treat the illnesses of your hearts, a healer who can heal you, a guide who can guide you and take you by the hand. ~ Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1146:He who does not live in the way of his beliefs starts to believe in the way he lives." ~ The Leader of the Believers, the Noble Companion Umar bin Al-Khattab رضي الله عنه, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1147:He, who wishes to meditate on the Lord after all his problems are solved, is like the fool, who wishes to bathe in the sea after the waves have subsided". That moment will never come. The sea will always have waves. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
1148:He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it; and these souls will be beloved of God like flowers arranged by me to adorn His throne." ~ Our Lady Fatima (June 13,1917), #KEYS
1149:If a man knows himself, he shall know God." ~ Clement of Alexandria, (c. 150 - c. 215), Christian theologian. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1150:It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them. One who perseveres is sure to triumph. Victory goes to the most enduring. Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1151:Very few are those who can stand firm on the rock of their faith and trust in the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Elements of Yoga, Faith and the Divine Grace, Trust in the Divine Grace and Help,#KEYS
1152:Who loves her loves life and they that keep vigil to find her shall enjoy her peace. Whosoever possesses her, shall have life for his inheritance. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1153:Everything will be known spontaneously if you do sadhana. Understand who you are. Know the Self. Then you can lead a life without attachment to anything. Such a state of mind will come if you do sadhana sincerely. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
1154:He is king who knows you, whatever you wear.
Cry out without a sound and he will hear.
Who doesn't speak to peddle self with words?
Who knows the truth in silence, him I serve. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
1155:He who believes himself to be far advanced in the spiritual life has not made a good beginning." ~ Jean-Pierre Camus de Pontcarré, (1584 - 1652) was a French bishop, preacher, and author of works of fiction and spirituality, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1156:Let not the favourable moment pass thee by, for those who have suffered it to escape them, shall lament when they find themselves on the path which leads to the abyss. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1157:That man is a true man whose mind dwells on God. He alone is a man whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened and who is firmly convinced that God alone is real and all else illusory. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1158:The closer you come to knowing that you alone create the world of your experience, the more vital it becomes for you to discover just who is doing the creating." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal , author of "A Light from the Shadows,", (2012)., #KEYS
1159:Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open? Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1160:A man who cannot comm and himself, should obey. But there are too those who know how to comm and themselves, but yet are very far from knowing how also to obey. ~ Nietzsche, Zarathustra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1161:He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, to effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1162:It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
1163:Let everyone hold what opinion he will until that Light shall come which makes of the light of the false philosophers a darkness and converts the darkness of those who truly know into light. ~ John Scottus Eriugena, Periphyseon 5 (1022c), #KEYS
1164:Often, actually very often, God allows his greatest servants, those who are far advanced in grace, to make the most humiliating mistakes. This humbles them in their own eyes and in the eyes of their fellow men." ~ Saint Louis de Montfort, #KEYS
1165:People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it. ~ George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin, #KEYS
1166:Since nothing can be expected to rise again, unless it has first been prostrated. It is only the man who is ignorant of the fact that the flesh falls by death, that can fail to discover that it stands erect by means of life. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
1167:The Grace and the help are always there for all who aspire for them and their power is limitless when received with faith and confidence.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Faith in the Divine Grace and Help,#KEYS
1168:We men are conceived twice: to the human body we owe our first conception, to the divine Spirit, our second. John says: "To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
1169:Do not be discouraged, but continue to practice meditation. You will soon succeed in freeing your mind from distractions. He who keeps his mind God, finds His grace, and through His grace becomes absorbed in meditation. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
1170:For such a man, one who neglects no effort to set himself from now in the ranks of the best, is a priest, a minister of the gods, a friend of Him who dwells within him. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1171:He is the wise man who, having once taken up his resolve, acts and does not cease from the labour, who does not lose uselessly his days and who knows how to govern himself. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1172:Just as those who see light are within the light and share in its splendour, so those who see God are in God and share his splendour also. But God's splendour gives life: and so those who see God receive life. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
1173:To seek to know the significance of life is itself the result of good karma in past births.
Those who do not seek such knowledge are simply wasting their lives. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 558,#KEYS
1174:He who contemplates the supreme Truth, contemplates the perfect Essence; only the vision of the spirit can see this nature of ineffable perfection. ~ Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1175:I am that Madan who inform the stars
With lustre and on life's wide canvas fill
Pictures of light and shade, of joy and tears. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Love and Death,#KEYS
1176:If we make every effort to avoid death of the body, still more should it be our endeavor to avoid death of the soul. There is no obstacle for a man who wants to be saved other than negligence and laziness of soul. ~ Saint Anthony the Great, #KEYS
1177:In all who have risen to a greater Life,
A voice of unborn things whispers to the ear, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1178:It is reasonable to believe that she, who brought forth "the Only-Begotten of the Father full of grace and truth," received greater privileges of grace than all others ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.27.1)., #KEYS
1179:One is there only, apart in his greatness, the End and Beginning,—
He who has sent through his soul's wide spaces the universe spinning. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1180:There is nothing to prevent a man, who cannot grasp a proof, accepting as a matter of faith, what in itself is capable of being scientifically known and demonstrated ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.2.2ad1)., #KEYS
1181:To repress anger will be possible to you if you show yourselves disposed towards those who commit faults as you would have them be to you if you had committed them yourselves. ~ Isocrates, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1182:When lies have been accepted for some time, the truth always astounds with an air of novelty." ~ Clement of Alexandria, (c. 150 - c. 215), Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1183:Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1184:Be like a solid tower whose brave height remains unmoved by all the winds that blow; the man who lets his thoughts be turned aside by one thing or another, will lose sight of his true goal, his mind sapped of its strength. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
1185:But when I call for a hero, out comes my lazy old self; so I never know who I am, nor how many I am or will be. I'd love to be able to touch a bell and summon the real me, because if I really need myself, I mustn't disappear. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
1186:How can he belong in peace who troubles himself with foreign cares, who seeks to diffuse himself into the outward and withdraws little or rarely into himself? ~ Imitation of Christ I. 11.7, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1187:It is then alone that thou canst become one who walks in heaven, one of those who walk on the winds and above the waves and their feet shall not touch the waters. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1188:The angel who guards the mother guards the child while in the womb. But at its birth, when it becomes separate from the mother, an angel guardian is appointed to it ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.113.5ad3)., #KEYS
1189:Whence this creation came into being, whether He established it or did not establish it, He who regards it from above in the supreme ether, He knows,-or perhaps He knows it not. ~ Rig Veda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1190:Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
1191:If thou wouldst make progress, be resigned to passing for an idiot or an imbecile in external things; consent to pass for one who understands nothing of them at all. ~ Epictetus: Manual. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1192:On the safe land
To linger is to lose what God has planned
For man's wide soul,
Who set eternal godhead for its goal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, To the Sea,#KEYS
1193:We have known thee, O most great Light who art perceived only by the intelligence I We have known thee, O Plenitude matrix of all Nature! We have known thee, O eternal Permanence ! ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1194:We who debate things and write books, we make progress as we write. Every day we learn, we explore as we dictate our books. We knock on God's door as we speak. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 162C.15, #KEYS
1195:When you are exposed to any trial, be it physical or moral, bodily or spiritual, the best remedy is the thought of him who is our life, and not think of the one without joining to it the thought of the other. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1196:Ask your Lord for a physician who can treat the illnesses of your hearts, a healer who can heal you, a guide who can guide you and take you by the hand. ~ Shaykh Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jilani, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1197:Before the soul can understand and remember it must be united to Him who speaks by His silence, as to the mind of the potter the form on which the clay is modelled. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1198:Ignorant like men born blind who know not light,
They could equate worst ill with highest good, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness,#KEYS
1199:In material things we see first, and then we taste. But in spiritual things we taste first so that we can see, because no one knows who does not taste. And thus he says first taste, and then see. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Psalmos 33:9 (34:8), #KEYS
1200:It is always the individual who receives the intuitions of Nature and takes the step forward dragging or drawing the rest of humanity behind him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1201:Life that pursuing her boundless march to a goal which we know not,
Ever her own law obeys, not our hopes, who are slaves of her heart-beats. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1202:...there will be no peace. Thrice will the sun rise over the heads of the combatants, without having been seen by them. But afterwards there will be peace, and all who have broken peace will have lost their lives." ~ Saint Odile, (660-720 AD), #KEYS
1203:The times are revolutionary, and revolutionary times demand men who know their own mind and are determined to make it the mind of the nation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - I, The Gospel according to Surendranath, #KEYS
1204:This deepening of love is the real purpose of the dark night of the soul. The dark night helps us become who we are created to be: lovers of God and one another." ~ Gerald G. May, (1940 - 2005) American Psychiatrist and Theologian, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1205:We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Though we cannot believe those who claim that everything is contained in everything, yet you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1206:What a weakness it is to love Jesus only when he caresses us, and to be cold immediately once he afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus love themselves too much to love God with all their heart. ~ Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, #KEYS
1207:Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream:
If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie,
And who was the liar who forged the universe? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
1208:Easy is the love that lasts
Only with favours in the shopman heart!
Who, smitten, takes and gives the kiss, he loves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Meditations of Mandavya,#KEYS
1209:Nothing profits the world as much as the abandoning of profits. A man who no longer thinks in terms of loss and gain is truly the non-violent man, for he is beyond all conflict. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1210:The whole universe is sum up in the Human Being. Devil is not a monster waiting to trap us, He is a voice inside. Look for Your Devil in Yourself, not in the Others. Don't forget that the one who knows his Devil, knows his God. ~ Shams Tabrizi, #KEYS
1211:To completely trust in Allah is to be like a child who knows deeply that even if he does not call for the mother, the mother is totally aware of his condition and is looking after him. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
1212:Who help men's drab and heavy ignorant lives
To wake to beauty and the wonder of things
Touching them with glory and divinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Entry into the Inner Countries,#KEYS
1213:He declares that the deserted wife shall have more children than she who has a husband, because faith has now made our people who seemed to have been deserted by God more numerous than those who were thought to possess him. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
1214:One who has not ceased from evil living or is without peace or without concentration or whose mind has not been tranquillised, cannot attain to Him by the intelligence. ~ Katha Upanishad II.24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1215:There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who have not sold out to the enemy. Even when their good work has been a success, Mammon grips them and whispers: More money for more work. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
1216:There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit's omnipotence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
1217:When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come. ~ Quodvultdeus, #KEYS
1218:Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other." ~ Carl Jung, (1875 - 1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1219:And we have been taught, and are convinced, and believe, that he accepts only those who imitate his own excellences—temperance, justice, philanthropy, and all the virtues unique to the God who is called by no proper name. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
1220:God's word is uttered by those who repeat Christ's teaching and meditate on his sayings. Let us always speak this word. When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1221:He who Is grows manifest in the years
And the slow Godhead shut within the cell
Climbs from the plasm to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
1222:He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1223:This groping search in darkness reveals to us the incomprehensible one as inescapably near, as the one in whom "we live, move, and are" (Acts 17:28), but who remains incomprehensible, nevertheless.... ~ Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being (60), #KEYS
1224:He who knows the Truth, the Knowledge, the Infinity that is Brahman shall enjoy with the all-wise Brahman all objects of desire. - Taittiriya Upanishad (II. 1.) ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Problem of Life 220, #KEYS
1225:He who seeks God with a longing heart can see Him, talk to Him as I am talking to you. Believe my words when I say that God can be seen. But ah! To whom am I saying these words? Who will believe me? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1226:I beg you to understand this one fact - no good comes out of the man who day and night thinks he is nobody. If a man, day and night, thinks he is miserable, low, and nothing, nothing he becomes. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1227:I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. ~ Marilyn Monroe, #KEYS
1228:Knowledge of God has entered into us and at once ignorance disappears. The knowledge of joy arrives and before her, my son, sorrow shall flee away to those who can still feel her sting. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1229:One who during his contemplation is entirely inconscient of all external things to such a point that if birds made a nest in his hair he would not know it, has acquired the perfection of meditation. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1230:Teach me, Lord, to do Your will. Teach me to live worthily and humbly in Your sight, for You are my wisdom Who know me truly, and Who knew me even before the world was made and before I was born into it. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1231:The world lives in us, thinks in us, forms itself in us; but we imagine that it is we who live, think, become separately by ourselves and for ourselves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance, #KEYS
1232:Today this created world is raised to the dignity of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator. ~ Saint Andrew of Crete, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, #KEYS
1233:Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1234:... happiness is daily experienced by everyone in sleep, when there is no mind. To attain that natural happiness one must know oneself. For that, Self-Enquiry, Who am I? is the chief means.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
1235:He insisted on the cleverness of the snake so that deadly wounds might be avoided, and he insisted on the innocence of the dove so that revenge might not be taken on those who injure or lay traps for you. ~ Cleverness is useless without innocence., #KEYS
1236:Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night, and to serve the rest of the needs of life. Let night give the other occasion of prayer. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1237:Madmen are they, and counselled by an imprisoned mind and by narrow thoughts, who think that what was not before can be born or what is be utterly abolished in death and dissolution. ~ Empedocles, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1238:People who believe in the reality of the world are really no better than people who build dams to catch the water that they see in a mirage." ~ Annamalai Swami, (1906-1995), a direct disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi, author of "Final Talks", (2000), #KEYS
1239:That which we arc is that, yes, it is that that we become, and if one knows it not, great is the perdition : it is they who who have discovered it that become immortal. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1240:The angel who guards the mother guards the child while in the womb. But at its birth, when it becomes separate from the mother, an angel guardian is appointed to the child ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.113.5ad3)., #KEYS
1241:The Church is called the threshing floor; the wheat is the faithful, who will be gathered together by the angels: "Ask the lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Lk 10:2)., #KEYS
1242:The way of death for us was through the sin of Adam. The devil is the mediator of this way, the one who persuades us to sin and hurled us headlong into death ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, The Trinity, 4.12.15)., #KEYS
1243:Today she who will receive the Holy of Holies, that is the Christ, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit is, through an even greater sanctification, placed in the Holy of Holies with holiness and majesty. ~ Saint Germanus of Constantinople, #KEYS
1244:We (the Carmelite) are descended from those holy fathers of ours on Mount Carmel, those who went in search of that treasure - the priceless pearl we are talking about - in such solitude and with such contempt for the world" ~ Saint Teresa of Jesus, #KEYS
1245:Who then among you is generous, who is compassionate, who is filled with love? He should speak out as follows: If I have been the cause of sedition, conflict and schisms, then I shall depart; I shall go away wherever you wish. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
1246:0:He whose self has become all existences, for he has the knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief, he who sees everywhere oneness? Isha Upanishad.1 ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Soul, #KEYS
1247:Altruism and indifference are often its most effective disguises; so draped, it will riot boldly in the very face of the divine spies who are missioned to hunt it out. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
1248:At the close of the great Night...He whom the spirit alone can perceive, who escapes from the organs of sense, who is without visible parts, Eternal, the soul of all existences, whom none can comprehend, outspread His own splendours. ~ Laws of Manu, #KEYS
1249:God will use the powers of darkness to exterminate these sectarian, iniquitous and criminal men, who plot to eradicate the Catholic Church, our Holy Mother, by tearing Her up by Her deepest roots, and casting Her on the ground. ~ Blessed Elizabeth , #KEYS
1250:He who goes from this world without knowing that Imperishable is poor in soul, but he who goes from this world having known that Imperishable, he is the sage. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III. 8. 10, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1251:He who would bring the heavens here
Must descend himself into clay
And the burden of earthly nature bear
And tread the dolorous way. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, A God's Labour,#KEYS
1252:I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
1253:When man has known beyond this world the Being who is hidden according to the form in every creature, the Lord who contains in himself all things, then he becomes immortal. ~ wetaswatara Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1254:Do not try to be rid of a disturbing thought. Ask when a thought is interrupting the peace: "Who is thinking that thought?" Only by relinquishing belief in the false identities that inspire thoughts can the thoughts come to an end. ~ Floyd Henderson, #KEYS
1255:Grace was in Christ not merely as in an individual, but also as in the Head of the whole Church, to Whom all are united, as members to a head, who constitute one mystical person ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.19.4)., #KEYS
1256:He whose thought spills not itself to this side or' that, whose mind is not tormented, who is not anxious any more about good than about evil, for him there is no fear, for he watches. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1257:How sweet will be the death of one who has done penance for all his sins, of one who won't have to go to purgatory! Even from here below you can begin to enjoy glory! You will find no fear within yourself but complete peace. ~ Saint Teresa of Ávila, #KEYS
1258:Leave out of your mind the quality of him who speaks to you whether great or small, and consider with an open mind whether the words spoken are true or false. ~ Iamblichus "Book on the Mysteries 1", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1259:The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
1260:The two phases of this distinction in life are—first, that the man who knows the real Self, will not be affected by anything; secondly, that that man alone can do good to the world. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (CW. V. 285), #KEYS
1261:Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption." ~ Our Lady of La Salette , #KEYS
1262:When thou seest all nature sunk in sleep, then again worship Him Who gives us even against our wills release from the continuous strain of toil, and by a short refreshment restores us once again to the vigour of our strength. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1263:All vices are destroyed by self-restraint, and whatever avarice thirsts for, pride strives for, luxury lusts after, is overcome by the solid force of this virtue, who can fail to understand the aid which is given us by fastings? ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
1264:A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
1265:Concerning women who commit fornication and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. ~ Council of Ancyra ~ AD 314), #KEYS
1266:That man, O beloved, who knows this imperishable Spirit, in which the Self is gathered with all its powers, lives and creatures, penetrates into all things and becomes omniscient. ~ Prasna Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1267:That the preaching of these men was indeed divine is brought home to us in the same way. For how otherwise could twelve uneducated men, who lived on lakes and rivers and wastelands, get the idea for such an immense enterprise? ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1268:The person who truly wishes to be healed is he who does not refuse treatment. This treatment consists of the pain and distress brought on by various misfortunes. He who refuses them does not realize what they accomplish in this world. ~ Saint Maximus, #KEYS
1269:The zest for life, which is the source of all passion and all insight, even divine, does not come to us from ourselves.... It is God who has to give us the impulse of wanting him. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1270:What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He Caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart. ~ Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, #KEYS
1271:Who is it that loves and who that suffers? The individual suffers because he perceives duality. It is duality which causes all sorrow and grief. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
1272:Who wants salvation? To whom is the liberation? Instead of simply turning within and being the silence which is saturated within the Heart, they roam about outside and remain agitated without peace. Everything is already within. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1273:He did not hide Himself in a corner of the Temple, as if afraid, or take shelter behind a wall or pillar; but by His heavenly power making Himself invisible to those who were threatening Him, He passed through the midst of them. ~ Theophylact of Ohrid, #KEYS
1274:None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.
This too the traveller of the worlds must dare.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness,#KEYS
1275:The idea of a person in loving God, is only with a view to being happy himself. He is, however, the embodiment of happiness and that happiness is God. Who else is to be loved? Love itself is God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1276:There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
1277:The true believer practices what he believes. But of those who pay only lip service to faith, Paul has this to say: They profess to know God, but they deny him in their works. Therefore James says: Faith without works is dead. ~ Pope Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1278:We beg you, Lord, to be our help and our support. Free us from our troubles; take pity on the lowly; raise up those who have fallen; give help to the poor, health to the sick, and bring home those who have wandered away. ~ Clement I to the Corinthians, #KEYS
1279:What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He Caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart." ~ Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, #KEYS
1280:Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1281:Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change." ~ Neville Goddard, See:, #KEYS
1282:Do not weigh down your servants with the burden of their sins, but purify us and direct the paths we take so that we go forward in purity and innocence of heart, so that all that we do is good and acceptable to you and to those who lead us. ~ Clement I, #KEYS
1283:If the chamber's door is even a little ajar,
What then can hinder God from stealing in
Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
1284:Ignorance fears all things, falling, terror-stricken before the passing wind. Superstition stands as the monument to ignorance, and before it kneel all who realize their own weakness who see in all things the strength they do not possess ~ Manly P Hall, #KEYS
1285:Like the child who does not reason and has no care, trust thyself to the Divine that His will may be done.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Elements of Yoga, Faith and the Divine Grace, Trust in the Divine Grace and Help,#KEYS
1286:Men who are sovereignly perfect resemble the earth by the greatness and depth of their wisdom, the heavens by its height and splendour, Space and illimitable Time by its extent and duration. ~ Tsu-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1287:One day the disciples wanted to know what sort of person was best suited to discipleship. Said the Master, 'The kind of person who, having two shirts, sells one and with the money buys a flower.'" ~ From "One Minute Wisdom,", (1985) by Anthony de Mello, #KEYS
1288:Thus seeing the supreme Spirit equally in all beings and all beings in the supreme Spirit, he, offering his soul in sacrifice, identifies himself with the Being who shines in his own splendour. ~ Manu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1289:To his disciples the Master said, 'People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favor progress, provided they can have it without change.'" ~ Anthony de Mello, (b. 1931), from his book "One Minute Wisdom,", (1985)., #KEYS
1290:Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1291:The one controlling inner Self of all existences who makes his one form into many kinds of form, him the sages see in themselves; theirs is the eternal peace and it is not for others. ~ Katha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1292:The Prince, travelling through his domains, noticed a man in the cheering crowd who bore a striking resemblance to himself. He beckoned him over and asked: Was your mother ever employed in my palace? ... No, Sire, the man replied. But my father was. ~ ?, #KEYS
1293:To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from presuppositions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot." ~ Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr, (967 - 1049), famous Persian Sufi and poet who contributed extensively to the evolution of Sufi tradition, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1294:Accordingly, those who do not come to Christ because of the power they see in him, but because they eat his bread, are not serving Christ but their own stomachs, as we see from Philippians ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (3:19), #KEYS
1295:For someone who penetrates the interior essence of Life, the enigmatic content of Christianity is suddenly illuminated in a light of such intensity that anyone perceiving it in this light finds himself profoundly unsettled. ~ Michel Henry, I Am the Truth, #KEYS
1296:He who watches over his body, his speech, his whole self, who is full of serenity and joy, possesses a spirit unified and finds satisfaction in solitude, he is in-deed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1297:I do not suffer any experience, pleasant or unpleasant; it is only a 'you' or a 'me' who suffers an experience. This is a very important pronouncement and you should ponder over it deeply. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1298:I have no taste for the food that perishes nor for the pleasures of this life. I want the Bread of God which is the Flesh of Christ, who was the seed of David; and for drink I desire His Blood which is love that cannot be destroyed. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1299:In that holy city, where perfect knowledge flows from the vision of almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known. But personal names are assigned to some to denote their ministry. Thus, Michael means "Who is like God".... ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1300:Moses, the lawgiver himself, who, when he descended from Mount Sinai, almost before the tables of the law had been put forward, in which it was written, Thou shall not kill, ordered the killing of three thousand people in a single moment. ~ Saint Optatus, #KEYS
1301:My father and I will come to him and make our home with him. Open wide your door to the one who comes. Open your soul, throw open the depths of your heart to see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the sweetness of grace. ~ Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
1302:No saint was so sublimely rapt and enlightened as not to be tempted before and after. He, indeed, is not worthy of the sublime contemplation of God who has not been tried by some tribulation for the sake of God. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1303:Pray, pray, my children ... You will all be about to be tested: the good ones will pay for the culprits, I will protect many, especially those who have always trusted me." ~ Our Lady Marie Martel (1872-1913) / APPARITIONS OF TILLY (1896 - c. early 1900s), #KEYS
1304:The minority who actually loves its work seems to be made up chiefly of the writers, dancers, actors and other artists, most scientists above the technician-troll level, computer freaks, and the righteous dope-dealers of California. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
1305:There are men in the world who labour to attain to spirituality and sages who are pure and perfect and can explain this life and the other of which they have themselves acquired the knowledge. ~ Unknown, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1306:There is only one sin and it is: weakness. When I was a boy, I read Milton's Paradise Lost. The only good man I had any respect for was Satan. The only saint is that person who never weakens, faces everything, and determines die game. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1307:And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 11:9-10, #KEYS
1308:If you wake up in the morning and say, "Who am I? What is this universe I'm living in all about? Who wakes up? Who sleeps?" If you inquire the answer to all these questions you become free in no time. But most of you do not do this, do you? ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
1309:Serve your parents. Never let them suffer the pangs of starvation or the lack of clothing. God becomes angry with the person who fails to provide one's parents with food and clothing or causes them anguish by speaking harshly to them. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1310:That is the supreme felicity of those who have won their victory, it is the perfect and immutable peace, the defeat of Impermanence, a pure and luminous condition, the victory over death. ~ Canon in Pali, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1311:The Magi are the "first-fruits of the Gentiles" that believed in Christ because their faith was a presage of the faith and devotion of the nations who were to come to Christ from afar ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.36.8)., #KEYS
1312:An emanation or a part of her being and consciousness comes out of the Mother to each sadhak and as her image and representative remains with him to help him. In fact, it is the Mother who comes out in that form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
1313:Faith adheres to all the articles of faith by reason of one medium: the First Truth proposed to us in Scriptures, according to the teaching of the Church who well understands them ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.5.3.ad2)., #KEYS
1314:He who has found his identity with God
Pays with the body's death his soul's vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1315:In whatever state I find myself, I have learned to be content." ~ Paul of Tursus, (c. 5 - c. 64 or 67), commonly known as Saint Paul, an apostle, (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first century world, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1316:Lion, give me your caresses— My husband and guardian, my spirit magician, My Shu-Sin who gladdens the Wind-God's heart Give me your caresses because you love me." ~ One stanza of love poem, (c. 1980 BC).For poem see, (diff. trans.): http://bit.ly/2qZHBef, #KEYS
1317:Practise with all thy strength love for that being who is the One in order that it may be made manifest to thy sight that He is one and alone and there is no other God than He. ~ Ahmed Halif "Mystic Odes", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1318:... Strange signs will appear in the skies: both horns of the moon will join the cross. Happy will be those who will have survived the war, since the pleasures of life will begin again, and the sun will have a new brilliance..." ~ Saint Odile, (660-720 AD), #KEYS
1319:The worst part about a break up isn't the loss of a relationship. It's finding out that the person you once loved doesn't exist anymore. You start mourning the death of somebody who is still alive. It's painful and sobering…" ~, (continued on next tweet), #KEYS
1320:Beyond all other men make thyself the friend of him who is distinguished by his virtue. Yield always to his gentle warnings and observe his honourable and useful actions. ~ Pythagoras; "Golden Verses". 5-6, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1321:There are Two who are One and play in many worlds;
In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met
And light and darkness are their eyes' interchange. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1322:Every action a man performs in thought, word and act, remains his veritable possession. It follows him and does not leave him even as a shadow separates not by a line from him who casts it. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1323:He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1324:If a man possesses the true light, darkness cannot lodge in his soul. Who can describe the peace of that luminous country where the true light shines out for ever in its limpid purity? ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1325:If we were to abandon concern for what is true, what is false, and what remains indeterminate, the world would be totally chaotic. Even those who deny the importance of truth, on the one hand, are quick to jump on anyone who is caught lying. ~ Howard Gardner, #KEYS
1326:Lo, all these peoples and who was it fashioned them? Who is unwilling
Still to have done with it? laughs beyond pain and saves in the killing? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Descent of Ahana,#KEYS
1327:Never give a sword to a man who can't dance." ~ Confucius, (551-479), Chinese philosopher and politician. Emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1328:The self is the master of the self, what other master of it canst thou have? The wise man who has made himself the master of himself, has broken his chains, he has rent the ties of his bondage. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1329:Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure." ~ 1 John 3:2-3, #KEYS
1330:Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil. It is as if there were a God who said to us, I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It's up to you. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
1331:For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride. ~ Saint Josemaria Escriva, #KEYS
1332:Man's concept of his world built on experience of the five senses is no longer adequate and in many cases no longer valid." ~ Shafica Karagulla, (1914 - ca. 1986), Turkish born Medical doctor and psychiatrist who took a special interest in psychic perception., #KEYS
1333:The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
1334:When Christ descended into hell He freed those who were detained there for the sin of our first parent, but left behind those who were being punished for their own sins ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Compendium of Theology 2.235)., #KEYS
1335:Whosoever nourishes feelings of hatred against those who hate, will never purify himself, but one who in reply to hatred awakens love, appeases and softens those who are filled with hatred. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1336:Without any possessions, and locked inside a prison, an experienced meditator could still feel joyful and free. While so many people who may travel the world, and who have every luxury and freedom, are still feeling joyless and imprisoned. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
1337:Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.
~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
1338:In the Ineffable who is the indivisible and eternal bliss, are centred all pleasure and happiness. Those who enjoy him, can find no attraction in the facile and valueless pleasures of the world. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1339:It is the Blessed One, the sole Being, thou sayest, who dwells in every soul: whence then come the misery and sorrow to which he is condemned by his presence in the heart of the soul of man? ~ Bhagavat Purana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1340:St. Thomas thinks... that real freedom consists precisely in being moved from within by God, who is not 'another' in any normal sense, precisely because there is no rivalry between the Creator and any of his creatures... ~ James Allison, The Joy of Being Wrong, #KEYS
1341:Such is the Guru, "Who has himself crossed this terrible ocean of life, and without any idea of gain to himself, helps others also to cross the ocean." This is the Guru, and mark that none else can be a Guru. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1342:The man who is sincere and careful to do nothing to others that he would not have done to him, is not far from the Law. What he does not desire to be done to him, let him not himself do to others. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1343:The renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works.... ~ Athanasius, On the Incarnation (I.1), #KEYS
1344:Thou who by the force of thy heroism hast reached the unlimited exercise of a divine intelligence, thou hast wisdom for the force of thy means and gentleness for the force of thy pure action. ~ Lalita Vistara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1345:When a man is intoxicated with ecstatic love of God, then who is his father or mother or wife? His love of God is so intense that he becomes mad with it. Then he has no duty to perform. He is free from all debts. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1346:He who has love for other people has God in his heart. To serve God's children is to serve God." ~ Ching Hai, (b. 1950) Vietnamese author, entrepreneur, and teacher of the Quan Yin Method of meditation. Her followers refer to her as "Supreme Master," Wikipedia., #KEYS
1347:One who has not the courage to face patiently and firmly life and its difficulties will never be able to go through the still greater inner difficulties of the sadhana. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Patience and Perseverance, #KEYS
1348:Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." ~ Carl Jung, (1875 - 1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies, #KEYS
1349:The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last cloud drains away, We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." ~ Li Po, (701-762), Chinese poet acclaimed as a genius who took traditional poetic forms to new heights, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1350:To think that this world is the aim and end of life is brutal and degenerating. Any man who starts in life with that idea degenerates himself He will never rise higher, he will always be a slave to the senses. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1351:Don't misunderstand the non-dual message and get into the 'nothing to do, nothing to attain' attitude. The point is to clarify who and what you are and resolve the roots of suffering. Sure, once this is clear, there is technically 'nothing to do'. ~ John Wheeler, #KEYS
1352:Every creature who is moved to attain and perceive Him will be cast back by the splendour of His majesty, nor is there anyone who cranes his neck to see Him whose glance is not turned aside in amazement. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
1353:His form stands not within the vision of any, none seeth Him with the eye. By the heart and the thought and the mind He is experienced; who seize this with the knowledge, they become immortal. ~ Katha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1354:If thou meetest on the roads of life an intelligent friend who is following thy path, one full of justice, firmness and wisdom, then overcome all obstacles and walk at his side happy and attentive. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1355:Therefore is the woman's part
Nearest divine, who to one motion keeps
And like the fixed immortal planets' round
Is constant to herself in him she loves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Uloupie,#KEYS
1356:There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God..." ~ Mitar Tarabich, #KEYS
1357:When we celebrate the feast in our own day, what path are we to take? As we draw near to this feast, who is to be our guide? Beloved, it must be none other than the one whom you will address with me as our Lord Jesus Christ. He says: "I am the way." ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1358:Yet is the opposite truth also wholly true that if thou canst see all God in a little pale unsightly and scentless flower, not God entirely; he who knows Krishna only, knows not even Krishna.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
1359:All things subsist in him who created them... All things have undoubtedly been created out of nothing, and their being would again be reduced to nothing unless the Creator of all things held them fast in his ruling hand. ~ Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 16.37, #KEYS
1360:Love is a priceless thing, only to be won at the cost of death. Those who live to die, these attain; for they have shed all thoughts of self." ~ Gujarati Hymn [Gujarati an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. "Death" refers to death of ego.], #KEYS
1361:The Divine is the sure friend who never fails, the Power, the Support, the Guide. The Divine is the Light which scatters darkness, the conqueror who assures the victory.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The Divine Is with You, [T3],#KEYS
1362:The 'I' is always there - in deep sleep, in dream and in wakefulness. The one in sleep is the same as that who now speaks. There is always the feeling of 'I'. Otherwise do you deny your existence? You do not. You say 'I am'. Find out who is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1363:There is not much virtue in going down the slope; all can do that for the natural gravitation of the consciousness is downward. He is the hero who resists the temptation to let himself slip, even for a moment, even to the extent of a hairs breadth.
~ M P Pandit,#KEYS
1364:The Word who became all things for us is close to us, our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to remain with us always. He cries out, saying: "See, I am with you all the days of this age." He is himself the shepherd, the high priest, the way and the door. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1365:Who enjoys the show? The actor or the spectator? Learn to be witness. Stand aside and watch the play. Don't get involved. Don't talk much. Speech is silver, silence is golden. Look and listen attentively. Many want to talk. Few care to listen. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1366:Another etymological theory considers the term guru to be based on the syllables gu (गु) and ru(रु), which it claims stands for darkness and light that dispels it, respectively.[Note 2] The guru is seen as the one who dispels the darkness of ignorance. ~ ?, #KEYS
1367:If a man gathers his whole, mind and fixes it on Me, then, indeed, he achieves everything. "But what am I? It is all He. I am the machine and He is its Operator. It is God alone who exists in this [meaning his body]. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1368:If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed. ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, #KEYS
1369:One who during his contemplation is entirely inconscient of all external things to such a point that if birds made a nest in his hair he would not know it, has acquired the perfection of meditation. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1370:The angler, anxious to hook a big fish, waits calmly for hours together, having thrown the bait and the hook into water. Similarly the devotee who patiently goes on with his devotions is sure at last to find his God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1371:The heavens declare the glory of God… because, for those who understand, God's artistic vision, which is revealed through the heavens' harmonious revolutions, fulfills the same role as God's creative word. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Six Days of Creation 11, #KEYS
1372:This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1373:To the meek and gentle, to the lowly and unassuming, to all who are prepared to endure injury - to these the earth is promised. This is not a small or unimportant inheritance, as if "the earth" were somehow distinct from a dwelling-place in heaven. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1374:Try peaceful tactics the first ninety-nine times, at the hundredth try, you have no choice if there's demand for a fight. A man who doesn't understand this is worse than a dog. If you encounter an aggressive dog, hit it on the nose with a stick." ~ Tibetan saying., #KEYS
1375:Yet God is loving and kind and omnipotent, and so he gives the sight of God, the greatest gift of all, to those who love him. Even this was foretold by the prophets: For those things that are impossible with men, are possible with God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
1376:e who punishes not, kills not, permits not to be killed, who is full of love among those who are full of hate, full of sweetness among those who are full of cruelty, he is indeed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1377:He, who is a devotee of God, must have an understanding, that cannot be shaken under any conditions. He must be like the anvil in a blacksmith's shop. It is constantly being struck by the hammer; still it is unshaken. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1378:I chant the name of Hari. How can I be a sinner? He who constantly repeats: 'I am a sinner! I am a wretch!' verily becomes a sinner. What lack of faith! A man chants the name of God so much, and still he talks of sin! ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1379:To an Earthkeeper, love is not a feeling or something your barter with. Love is the essence of who you are, and it radiates from you as a brilliant aura: You become love, practice fearlessness, and attain enlightenment." ~ Alberto Villoldo, Cuban-born psychologist., #KEYS
1380:Yama, the strong pure Hades sad and subtle,
Dharma, who keeps the laws of old untouched,
Critanta, who ends all things and at last
Himself shall end. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Love and Death,#KEYS
1381:You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, while even the hard stones are split. Consider how great he is; consider what he is. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
1382:Ananke's engines organising Chance,
Channels perverse of a stupendous Will,
Tools of the Unknown who use us as their tools, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1383:Let us follow in his paths by the guidance of the Gospel; then we shall deserve to see him who has called us into his kingdom. If we wish to attain a dwelling-place in his kingdom we shall not reach it unless we hasten there by our good deeds. ~ Rule of St. Benedict, #KEYS
1384:Names and forms are nothing but the manifestations of the power of Prakriti. Whatever names and forms you see are nothing but the manifestations of the power of ChitŚakti. Everything is the power of ChitŚakti-even meditation and he who meditates. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1385:7. He in whom it is the Self-Being that has become all existences that are Becomings, for he has the perfect knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief who sees everywhere oneness?
~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, [7],#KEYS
1386:Do not indulge in idle curiosity—no asking "what the city has done," or the ward, or the Emperor, or the Bishop, or the priest. Lift up your eyes: now, as your hour strikes, you need Him who is above ~ Cyril of Jerusalem, Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures, 13)., #KEYS
1387:He, who meditates well, attains power to work more efficiently. He is never tired, because his energy is not mis-spent in any way: he is never annoyed nor worried, he is not attached to anything. Always be calm, go on working without any fatigue. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
1388:ho is the Wise man? Whosoever is constantly learning something from one man or another. Who is the rich man? Whosoever is contented with his lot. Who is the strong man? Whosoever is capable of self-mastery. ~ Talmud, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1389:Meet together in common — every single one of you — in grace, in one faith and on Jesus Christ (who was of David's line in his human nature, son of man and son of God) that you may obey the bishop and presbytery with undistracted mind. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1390:Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1391:The Mother is the Divine Consciousness-Force that makes Him manifested. It is She who forms all worlds and beings and things and souls for the Divine Inhabitant. She is the Divine Will that is one with Divine Truth.
~ Sri Aurobindo, [T6],#KEYS
1392:As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1393:He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: Who will contend with me? I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life.... ~ Melito of Sardis, #KEYS
1394:saw the signature and fiery seal
Of Wisdom on the dim Power's hooded work
Who builds in Ignorance the steps of Light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
1395:The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1396:Whosoever has come to know himself, has come to the perfect good; but he who by an error of love has set his love on the body, remains lost in darkness and subjected by his senses to the conditions of death. ~ Hennes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1397:All here is dreamed or doubtfully exists,
But who the dreamer is and whence he looks
Is still unknown or only a shadowy guess. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1398:At this time as a punishment for their sins Christians especially will attempt armed resistance to those who at that time are persecuting ... Because of Michael's help God's faithful children will march under his protection." ~ Saint Hildegard of Bingen, (1098-1179 AD), #KEYS
1399:If you can leave a relationship with love, empathy, and compassion, without any thoughts of revenge, hatred, or fear, that is how you let go." ~ Brian Weiss, (b. 1944) American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist, and author who specializes in past life regression, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1400:It is only a lazy and worldly person or one who is ignorant or uneducated who will rest content with the literal and superficial sense and refuse to penetrate the deeper meaning ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, 20.21)., #KEYS
1401:May our blessed Lord Jesus Christ reign! Gaudeamus omnes; let us all rejoice who are in the service of the Most High, because the great visitation and reformation of the world is approaching when there shall be only one fold and one Shepherd." ~ Saint Francis di Paola., #KEYS
1402:No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." ~ Albert Einstein, (1879 - 1955) German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, (alongside quantum mechanics), Wikipedia, #KEYS
1403:The Lord says indeed, 'Blessed are they that mourn' [Matthew 5:4], speaking of those who mourn for their sins; and no one mourns that kind of mourning, nor cares for a lost soul; but this other we were not bidden to practice, and we practice it. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1404:You, therefore, who are undertaking the study of this book, if you persevere to the end and understand it, you will be either a monarch or a madman. Do what you will with this volume, you will be unable to despise or to forget it.
~ Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic,#KEYS
1405:A man who does the lower work is not, for that reason only, a lower man than he who does the higher works; a man should not be judged by the nature of his duties, but by the manner in which he does them. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 239), #KEYS
1406:Another text says: 'I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners', for it is those who are on the point of perishing who must be saved. It is a great and wonderful work to uphold those who are falling, rather than those who already stand firm. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
1407:Holy sorrow comes from contemplating one's own sins and the sins of others. It does not weep at the actions of divine justice but at the sins committed by human wickedness. It is the one who does evil who is to be pitied here, not the one who suffers it. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1408:Paul says, when Christ who is our life appears, because he is the Author of our life, and because our life consists in knowing and loving him: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Gal 2:20)., #KEYS
1409:The Church of God that sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to hem who are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
1410:The mind of the one who knows the truth does not leave Brahman. The mind of the ignorant, on the contrary, revolves in the world, feeling miserable, and for a little time returns to Brahman to experience happiness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1411:This is something amazing and unheard of! It was not we who actually died, were buried and rose again. We only did these things symbolically, but we have been saved in actual fact. It is Christ who was crucified, who was buried and who rose again. ~ Jerusalem Catecheses, #KEYS
1412:Christ, the light of all lights, follows John, the lamp that goes before him. The Word of God follows the voice in the wilderness; the bridegroom follows the bridegroom's friend, who prepares a worthy people for the Lord by cleansing them by water. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1413:Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads on to God-realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogin, who has striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1414:If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. ~ Thomas Jefferson, paraphrase of Jefferson's statement in Notes on the State of Virginia, #KEYS
1415:The Shears Of Fate :::
Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned,
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing! ~ Omar Khayyam,#KEYS
1416:The pure shall not die, but he who leads not the spiritual life dies without ceasing. The wise man knows this difference and takes pleasure in purity and spirituality; it is his joy to live like the saints. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1417:To be heedful of one's soul is the way to immortality, but heedlessness is the highway of death. They who persevere and are heedful shall not perish, but the careless are even now as if souls that are dead. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1418:When a man who has carried out a great work is destroyed, it is for the egoism by which he has misused the force within that the force itself breaks him to pieces. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
1419:Do not accept any of my words on faith, believing them just because I said them. Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns, and critically examines his product for authenticity. Only accept what passes the test by proving useful and beneficial in your life. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
1420:If someone gave you a beautiful, expensive new hat, wouldn't you be grateful for the generous gift? But shouldn't you be even more grateful for the One Who gave you the head to put that hat on. ~ Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1421:In the first year, mistress of treasure and filled with blessings, — let the Cherubim give thanks with us, they who bear — the Son in glory Who gave up His glorious state — and toiled and found the sheep that was lost — to Him be thanksgiving! ~ Ephraim the Syrian, #KEYS
1422:On the Lord's Day . . . gather together, break bread and offer the Eucharist, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure. Let no one who has a quarrel with his neighbor join you until he is reconciled, lest our sacrifice be defiled ~ Didache)., #KEYS
1423:This Yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Lower Vital Being, #KEYS
1424:After long practice one who is master of himself can dispense with diverse aids to concentration...and he will be able to make himself master of any result whatsoever simply by desiring it. ~ Patanjali : Aphroisms.III. 34, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1425:A painter without hands who wished to express in song the picture before his mind would, by means of this substitution of spheres, still reveal more about the essence of things than does the empirical world. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, 'On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense', #KEYS
1426:He endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets. ~ Melito of Sardis, #KEYS
1427:He who has made the Buddha his refuge
Cannot be killed by ten million demons;
Though he transgress his vows or be tormented in mind,
It is certain that he will go beyond rebirth.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Sutra of the Heart of the Sun,#KEYS
1428:He who leads the life of a householder should devote fifteen parts of his mind to God; otherwise he will face ruin and fall into the clutches of Death. He should perform the duties of the world with only one part of his mind. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1429:We do not know where death awaits us; so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave." ~ Michel de Montaigne, (1533 - 1592) French philosopher of the French Renaissance, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1430:8. Here proclaim which is he, O Fire, what demon-sorcerer, who is the doer of this deed? To him do violence with thy blaze, O youthful god, subject him to the eye of thy divine vision. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, 2 - Other Hymns, #KEYS
1431:Beloved, see what a marvellous thing love is; its perfection is beyond our expression. Who can truly love save those to whom God grants it? We ought to beg and beseech him in his mercy that our love may be genuine, unmarred by any too human inclination. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
1432:Death will work in me this transformation, that I shall pass into another being otherwise separated from the world. And then the whole world, while yet the same for those who live in it, will become other for me. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1433:For the Word, who created the universe and established the law, is concealed in His manifestation, being invisible according to nature; and He is manifested through concealment, assuring those who are wise that by nature He cannot be apprehended. ~ Maximus, Amb. 10.18.1129C, #KEYS
1434:God must be born on earth and be as man
That man being human may grow even as God.
He who would save the world must be one with the world ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1435:He who afflicts no living creature, who neither kills nor allows to be killed, him indeed I call a man of religion. Whoever wishes to consecrate himself to the spiritual life, ought not to destroy any life. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1436:He who fails to join in your worship shows his arrogance by the very fact of becoming a schismatic. If then, those who act carnally suffer death, how much more shall those who by wicked teaching corrupt God's faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1437:Human justice imitates God's wisdom insofar as it can, for it puts to death those who are dangerous to others, while it allows time for repentance to those who sin without grievously harming others ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.64.2ad2)., #KEYS
1438:Prophets and incarnations who have come and gone have shown us one thing, that we too can become heirs of knowledge and power like themselves - if we only have the will. If we struggle, walking the path taken by them, we too will reach that goal one day. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
1439:Unconditioned consciousness is God, the one and only reality. By unconditioned consciousness is meant a sense of awareness; a sense of knowing that I AM apart from knowing who I AM;…" ~ Neville Goddard, (1905-1972), American mystic teacher. "The Complete Reader,", (2013)., #KEYS
1440:You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
1441:Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. ~ Frank Zappa, #KEYS
1442:Godheads live who care not for the world
And share not in the toil of Nature's powers:
Absorbed in their self-ecstasy they dwell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
1443:Here is the secret of happiness. Forget yourself and think of others." ~ Swami Paramananda, (1884-1940), an early Indian teacher who went to the United States to spread the Vedanta philosophy. He was a mystic, a poet and an innovator in spiritual community living, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1444:I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1445:Moreover, every language having a structure, by the very nature of language, reflects in its own structure that of the world as assumed by those who evolve the language. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, #KEYS
1446:There is a great silence on earth today... The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. ~ Holy Saturday: An Ancient Homily, #KEYS
1447:The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practise virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings and those who sacrifice." ~ Our Lady of Good Success, #KEYS
1448:We should pray then that we may be granted forgiveness for our sins and for whatever we may have done when led astray by our adversary's servants. And for those who were the leaders of the schism and the sedition, they too should look to the common hope. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
1449:When one knows God without beginning and end in the midst of the complex mass of things, the creator of all who takes many forms, the One who envelops the universe, he is delivered from all bondage. ~ Swetacwatara Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1450:When we pray we pray not for one but for all people, because we are all one people together. The God of peace and master of concord, who taught that we should be united, wanted one to pray in this manner for all, as he himself bore all in one. ~ Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer, #KEYS
1451:Anyone who says, 'If God is omnipotent, let him make what has happened not to have happened,' does not realize that he is saying, 'If God is omnipotent, let him make true things false insofar as they are true.' ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1452:As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer, his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma is ended. This is the state of eternal liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1453:A writer who wishes to be read by posterity must not be averse to putting hints which might give rise to whole books, or ideas for learned discussions, in some corner of a chapter so that one should think he can afford to throw them away by the thousand. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1454:Continue to pray that God may console you when you feel that the weight of the Cross is becoming too burdensome. Acting thus you are not doing anything against the will of God, but are with the Son of God who, in the garden, asked His Father for some relief. ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
1455:Dominate the rush of passion. Yield not to the impulsion of a turbulent heart; he who is able to calm his heart when passion suddenly inflames it, can be called indeed a skilful driver of the chariot. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1456:Father and son just express the relation of the one to the other: A father is one who supplies for another the principle of his being in a nature like his own, a son is one who receives from another through generation the principle of his being. ~ Saint Basil, Contra Eunomius, #KEYS
1457:Heed these Words, You who Wish to Probe the Depths of Nature: If You Do Not Find Within Yourself that Which You Seek, Neither will You Find it Outside. In You is Hidden the Treasure of Treasures. Know Thyself and You Will Know the Universe and the Gods. ~ The Oracle of Delphi, #KEYS
1458:He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. ~ Saint Andrew of Crete, #KEYS
1459:In northwest India the bride holds a knife in her hand at the time of marriage. The meaning is that the bridegroom, with the help of the bride, who is the embodiment of the divine Power, will sever the bondage of illusion." ~ Ramakrishna, (1836-1886), Hindu mystic, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1460:In our present life of Nature, in our externalised surface existence, it is the world that seems to create us; but in the turn to the spiritual life it is we who must create ourselves and our world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1461:The object of our worship is the one God, who by the word of his command, by the reason of his plan, and by the strength of his power has brought forth from nothing this whole construction of elements, bodies, and spirits for the glory of his majesty. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
1462:To reach back and help, and expect neither reward nor even thanks. To reach back and help, because that is what spiritual beings do." ~ Brian L. Weiss, (b. 1944) an American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist, and author who specializes in so-called past life regression, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1463:But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to show to us, the offices of mercy is by right called a neighbor, it is manifest that the command to love our neighbor embraces the holy angels also. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1464:Do not seek for human help, but look only to the grace of the Lord. He will protect you. Pray to Him & depend on Him alone. Human help is so uncertain. Human friends are selfish and they betray; but He is the Divine Friend, who loves for the sake of love. ~ SWAMI PARAMANANANDA, #KEYS
1465:Every maker of video games knows something that the makers of curriculum don't seem to understand. You'll never see a video game being advertised as being easy. Kids who do not like school will tell you it's not because it's too hard. It's because it's--boring ~ Seymour Papert, #KEYS
1466:Faith is the mother of us all, going forward with hope following and with love of God and Christ and neighbor leading the way. If a man is among these then he has fulfilled the commandment of righteousness, for he who has love is far from all sin. ~ Polycarp to the Philippians, #KEYS
1467:He hath not lived here, who hath sober lived. And he that dieth not drunk hath missed the mark. With tears then let him mourn himself, whose life Hath passed, and he no share of it hath had." ~ Ibn al-Farid, (1181 - 1234) Esteemed as the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs, Wik., #KEYS
1468:The characteristic of the ignorant man is that he strives to be other than what he is. To the enlightened one, there is none who are ignorant." ~ "Yoga Vasistha," a philosophical text attributed to Valmiki, real author unknown., (6th-cent. to as late as 14th-cent.), Wikipedia., #KEYS
1469:The ineffable God is spoken of more precisely by one who maintains that He dwells in light inaccessible to the intellect, beyond all affirmation and negation, all positing and removing, all opposition, all change and unchangingness. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, De Dato Patris Luminum 3, #KEYS
1470:Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. ~ Romans 6:3-4, #KEYS
1471:A stranger here Strange things doth meet, strange glories see; Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear, Strange all, and new to me. But that they mine should be, who nothing was, That strangest is of all, yet brought to pass." ~ Thomas Traherne, (c.1636- c.1674) Wik., #KEYS
1472:Beware of the scribes who desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief places at feasts, who devour widow's houses and for a show make long prayers ~ Luke, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1473:For the whole spiritual world seems mystically imprinted on the whole sensible world in symbolic forms, for those who are capable of seeing this, and conversely the whole sensible world is spiritually explained in the mind in the principles which it contains. ~ Maximus, Myst. 4, #KEYS
1474:For those who live in pious fear and in love are willing to endure torment rather than have their neighbour suffer; and they more willingly suffer their own condemnation than the loss of that harmony that has been so nobly and righteously handed down to us. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
1475:Sometimes, soul mates may meet, stay together until a task or life lesson is completed, and then move on. This is not a tragedy, only a matter of learning." ~ Brian Weiss, (b. 1944) American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist, author who specializes in past life regression, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1476:The only way we can prove what the apostles taught-that is to say, what Christ revealed to them-is through those same churches. They were founded by the apostles themselves who first preached to them by what is called the living voice and later by means of letters. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
1477:The Saviour instilled and taught this, that they who wished to follow Him should deny themselves, and count the loss of temporal things as light in the hope of things eternal; because he alone could save his soul that did not fear to lose it for Christ. ~ Pope St. Leo the Great, #KEYS
1478:What have you done to deserve anything at all and who are you even? If you contemplate these thing deeply you would not be arrogant and you would not suffer. You would value life In all its experiences." ~ Mooji, (b. 1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher. From "Before I Am", (2012)., #KEYS
1479:What narrowness of spiritual life we find in Frazer! …how impossible for him to understand a different way of life from the English one of his time! Frazer cannot imagine a priest who is not basically an English Parson of our times… ~ Wittgenstein, On Frazier's Golden Bough, #KEYS
1480:All the splendour of outward greatness has no lustre for men who are in search of the Spirit. The greatness of men of the Spirit is obnoxious to the rich, the kings, the conquerors and all the men of the flesh. ~ Pascal: Penses, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1481:And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so that in this way the Wisdom of God, who consoles us as a mother, may refresh us from that very same bread [of the angels] and lead us through the sacraments of the incarnation to the knowledge and vision of divine splendor. ~ Bede, #KEYS
1482:And this food is called among us eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things which we teach are true and has received the washing that is for the remission of sins and rebirth, and who so lives as Christ handed down ~ Justin, 1st apol, #KEYS
1483:God is not only inside us; He is both inside and outside. The Divine Mother showed me in the Kāli temple that everything is Chinmaya, the Embodiment of Spirit; that it is She who has become all this. Everything is indeed Chinmaya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1484:Good is the mastery of the body, good the mastery of the speech, good too the mastery of the mind, good the perfect self-mastery. The disciple who is the master of himself, shall deliver his soul from every sorrow. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1485:He who lives in the realization of his oneness with the Infinite Power becomes a magnet to attract to himself a continual supply of whatever things he desires… " ~ Ralph W. Trine, (1866-1958) American philosopher, author & teacher, wrote on the New Thought movement, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1486:Prophet 'Isa (Jesus - peace and blessing be upon him), said: "He who acts on the knowledge that he possesses, Allaah will bestow him with knowledge that he does not possess." ~ Abu Nu'aym (r) al-Hilyatul Awliya, vol 10, p 15, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1487:Since we are proposing to examine the structure of the world and to contemplate the whole universe... it is absolutely necessary that those who are fond of great shows and wonders should have a mind trained for the consideration of what we propose. ~ Basil the Great, Hexameron 6, #KEYS
1488:There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love." ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090 - 1153) French Abbot, Wik, #KEYS
1489:The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from the earthly men we were, men of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the divine glory, sons and heirs of God the Father who bear a likeness to the Son and are his co-heirs and brothers. ~ Didymus of Alexandria, #KEYS
1490:Things happen without cause and reason and, after all, what does it matter, who is who? Your high opinion of me is your opinion only. Any moment you may change it. Why attach importance to opinions, even your own? ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1491:This interior division (at Church) is manifesting itself even among the faithful who often set themselves one against the other, in an attempt to defend and better promote the truth. Thus the truth is betrayed by even them, as the Gospel of my Son cannot be divided." ~ Our Lady , #KEYS
1492:After baptism, we are called God's children. Therefore we should carefully examine our Father's characteristics, so that, by molding and framing ourselves in the likeness of our Father, we may appear true children of him who calls us to adoption by grace. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
1493:A man who has been justified, who from impious has been made pious, receives a gift (since he had no antecedent good merit) by which he may also acquire merit: what was begun in him by Christ's grace can also be augmented by the industry of his free choice. ~ Prosper of Aquitaine, #KEYS
1494:As the word we speak is an image of the Word who is God's Son, so also is the wisdom implanted in us an image of the Wisdom who is God's Son. It gives us the ability to know and understand and so makes us capable of receiving him who is the all-creative Wisdom. ~ Saint Athanasius, #KEYS
1495:I am smashed by waves of affairs and afflicted by storms of a life of tumults, so I may rightly say: I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. And so, you who stand on the shore of virtues, stretch out the hand of your prayer to me in my danger. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1496:I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Jesus Christ, Son of God, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, and was buried; on the third day, He rose again to life from the dead. ~ Early Roman baptismal creed, #KEYS
1497:Something they forge there sitting unknown in the silence eternal,
Whether of evil or good it is they who shall choose who are masters
Calm, unopposed; they are gods and they work out their iron caprices. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Ilion,#KEYS
1498:The holy doctors held with the Platonists that different spiritual substances were placed over corporeal things..."the world has need of angels who preside over beasts, & over the birth of animals, & trees, & plants, & over the increase of all other things" ~ Aquinas ST I q110 a1, #KEYS
1499:The nether snake who writhes
Sweet-poisoned, perilous in the rich grass,
Lust with the jewel love upon his hood,
Who by his own crown must be charmed, seized, change
Into a warm great god. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
1500:The one who knows the mystery of the cross and the tomb knows the principles of all creatures [visible & invisible]. And the one who has been initiated into the ineffable power of the Resurrection knows the purpose for which God originally made all things. ~ Maximus the Confessor, #KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Who seeks shall find. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 2:He who grasps, lets slip. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 3:He who is contented is rich. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 4:He who despairs is wrong. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 5:God himself helps those who dare. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 6:Who, being loved, is poor? ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 7:A man who has been in danger, ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 8:He is able who thinks he is able. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 9:He who sling mud, lose ground. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 10:Only those live who do good. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 11:Frying pans! Who knew, right? ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 12:God helps him who strives hard. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 13:He was a wise man who invented God. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 14:Often they benefit who suffer wrong. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 15:Who stops learning may be old. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 16:Forgive those who have hurt you. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 17:He who feels it, knows it more. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 18:He who is greedy is always in want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 19:The glory is for those who deserve. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 20:He is not poor who has a competency. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 21:He who eats alone chokes alone. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 22:He who hesitates is a damned fool. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 23:He who knows he has enough is rich. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 24:Put faith in one who's had experience. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 25:The king is the man who can. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 26:Who will speak for Planet Earth? ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 27:No one who lives in error is free. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 28:Only those who seek shall find. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 29:Who gets to decide what you want? ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 30:Who is this god person anyway? ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 31:He who can simulate sanity will be sane. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 32:He who hath many friends hath none. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 33:I love who I am and all that I do. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 34:The gods help them who help themselves. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 35:Base men who prosper are unenviable. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 36:Ego is a ghost who is terrified of dying ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 37:Happy is he who causes a scandal ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 38:He does not weep who does not see. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 39:No one who errs unwillingly is evil. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 40:The person who fails the most wins. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 41:Those who do not weep, do not see. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 42:Those who suffer most cry out the least. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 43:Who said nights were for sleep? ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 44:Who then is sane? He who is not a fool. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 45:He who believes needs no explanation. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 46:I love people who make me laugh! ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 47:Not everyone who wanders is lost. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 48:Those who live are those who fight. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 49:Who gathers the withered rose? ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 50:God helps those who have no-cut contracts. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 51:Happy the man who can count his sufferings. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 52:He who reforms, God assists. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 53:he who will not economize will agonize ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 54:If not us, who? If not now, when? ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 55:Anyone who keeps learning stays young. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 56:Finding is reserved for those who reach. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 57:He who says o'er much I love not is in love. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 58:He who truly seeks God has found Him. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 59:I flee who chases me and chase who flees me. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 60:It is the tale, not he who tells it. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 61:It was my fans who made me a star. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 62:Look your best - who said love is blind? ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 63:Man, who don't like spaghetti? ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove 64:The one who is not being born is dying. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 65:Those who covet much suffer from the want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 66:Who contains himself goes seldom wrong. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 67:Who then will explain the explanation? ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 68:Criticism comes to those who stand out. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 69:For they conquer who believe they can. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 70:Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 71:He who chases two rabbits, catches none. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 72:I am a man who does not exist for others. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 73:It is always the novice who exaggerates. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 74:It is not the critic who counts ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 75:It's not the critic who counts. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 76:Life helps those who help themselves. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 77:Listen, my friend. He who loves understands. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 78:None but those who work are entitled to eat. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 79:The person who experiences most wins. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 80:They who prosper take on airs of vanity. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 81:Who has self-confidence will lead the rest. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 82:Dip him in the river who loves water. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 83:Happy is the man who is nothing. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 84:He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 85:He who gives early gives twice. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 86:If not us, who? And if not now, when? ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 87:I hate a man who skins the land. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 88:Let him who has enough ask for nothing more. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 89:Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 90:Nobody likes the man who brings bad news. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 91:No man fails who does his best. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 92:The best of seers is he who guesses well. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 93:To him who is afraid, everything rustles. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 94:Who can be patient in extremes? ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 95:You are the guy who'll decide where to go. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 96:He alone may chastise who loves. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 97:He preaches well who lives well. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 98:He who conquers self conquers all. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 99:He who goes unenvied shall not be admired. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 100:He who would not be idle, let him fall in love. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 101:I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 102:It is the poor man who'll ever count his flock. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 103:Never slap a man who is chewing tobacco. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 104:People who don't think shouldn't talk. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 105:Say what you believe and see who follows. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 106:The man who does ill, ill must suffer too. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 107:The things we love tell us who we are. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 108:They never fail who die in a great cause. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 109:They think too little who talk too much. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 110:Those who want much, are always much in need. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 111:We speak, but it is God who teaches. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 112:Who will observe the observers? ~ sir-arthur-eddington, @wisdomtrove 113:A man who lies about beer makes enemies. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 114:Day by day, what you do is who you become. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 115:He hears but half who hears one party only. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 116:He who gains time gains everything. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 117:He who is really kind, can never be unhappy ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 118:He who kisses girl on hillside is not level ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 119:Love who and what you are and what you do. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 120:Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 121:Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 122:Silence is a true friend who never betrays. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 123:The best general is the one who never fights. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 124:The gull sees farthest who flies highest ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 125:The things we love tell us who we are. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 126:The warrior who's strength is not to fight. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 127:They live too long who happiness outlive. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 128:Anybody who helps the poor is delighted. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 129:A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 130:For they can conquer who believe they can. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 131:For those who are awake, the Cosmos is One. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 132:Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 133:He deposes Doom Who hath suffered him. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 134:He is always a slave who cannot live on little. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 135:He is not a lover who does not love forever. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 136:He wants worth who dares not praise a foe. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 137:He who dares not offend cannot be honest. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 138:He who plots to hurt others often hurts himself. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 139:He who sings the praises of his boyhood's days. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 140:It is always the secure who are humble. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 141:It's the good loser who finally loses out. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 142:Never give a sword to a man who can't dance. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 143:None love the messenger who brings bad news. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 144:Saints are only sinners who keep trying. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 145:The man who dies rich, dies disgraced. ~ andrew-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 146:The offender, who repents, is not yet lost. ~ democritus, @wisdomtrove 147:They who drink beer will think beer. ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove 148:Those who attempt to level never equalize ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 149:Those who understand nature walk with God. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 150:To the man who is afraid everything rustles. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 151:We read books to find out who we are. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 152:Who tracks the steps of glory to the grave? ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 153:Your neighbor is the man who needs you. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 154:God ever works with those who work with will. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 155:He is not a lover who does not love for ever. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 156:He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 157:He who wants, but doesn't act, is a pest. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 158:Much is wanting to those who seek or covet much. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 159:One who fears failure limits his activities. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 160:Pure women are only those who have not been asked. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 161:They alone live, who live for others. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 162:Those who do not complain are never pitied. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 163:Those who seek to please everybody please nobody. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 164:Well has he lived who has lived well in obscurity. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 165:Who are the rabble and who are the ruled? ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 166:Who doesn't desire his fathers death? ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 167:A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 168:A winner is a dreamer who never gives up. ~ nelson-mandela, @wisdomtrove 169:Don't ask who said it? Ask what they said. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 170:Fences are made for those who cannot fly. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 171:He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 172:He who praises everybody, praises nobody. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 173:He who shares the danger ought to share the prize. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 174:He who's never loved cannot be good. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 175:He who wishes to fight must first count the cost ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 176:I hate men who are afraid of women's strength. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 177:I like a man who grins when he fights. ~ winston-churchill, @wisdomtrove 178:It all comes down to who's by your side. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 179:Life loves the person who dares to live it. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 180:Some wisdom you must learn from one who's wise ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 181:The only people who hate escapism are jailers. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 182:There’s always someone who knows something. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 183:The soul is the truth of who we are. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 184:Those who win are those who think they can. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 185:Who pleasure gives, Shall joy receive. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 186:A man who lacks reliability is utterly useless. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 187:Ares (The God of War) hates those who hesitate. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 188:Blessings on him, who invented sleep. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 189:Don't ask who said it? Ask what they said. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 190:Don't trust people who don't laugh. I don't. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 191:Faith keeps the person who keeps the faith. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 192:He who feared that he would not succeed sat still. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 193:He who sings frightens away his ills. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 194:He who will not economize will have to agonize. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 195:If premarital sex is a sin, who is the victim? ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 196:Insanity is relative. Who sets the norm? ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 197:Man who eat many prunes get good run for money. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 198:Men like women who know how to be subtle. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 199:Naked I seek the camp of those who desire nothing. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 200:Oh, give us the man who sings at his work. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 201:Paradise is for those who make paradise. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 202:There's always someone who is trying to help. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 203:They aimless halt, who halt for others. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 204:They who lose today may win tomorrow. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 205:Those who own much have much to fear. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 206:Who amongst us lives without sacrifice? ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 207:Who saves his country violates no law. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 208:Who so ever diggeth the pit, shall fall in it. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 209:A man who knows he is a fool is not a great fool. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 210:Anybody who doesn't like this book is healthy ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 211:A one-hit wonder is a legend who stopped early. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 212:Beware Those Who Are ALWAYS READING BOOKS ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 213:Everyone who does the best he can is a hero. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 214:Fortunate are those who take the first steps. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 215:He has half the deed done who has made a beginning. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 216:He has the deed half done who has made a beginning. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 217:He is not poor who has the use of necessary things. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 218:He who have two grounds of trust is lost! ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 219:Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 220:Liar, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 221:The earth has music for those who listen. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 222:They sicken of the calm who know the storm. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 223:Those who realise their folly are not true fools. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 224:To the person who is afraid, everything rustles. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 225:Who knows but life be that which men call death, ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 226:Zeus hates busybodies and those who do too much. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 227:but who can feel ugly, when their heart feels joy ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 228:Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 229:God exalts the man who humbles himself. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 230:He was a wise man who originated the idea of God. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 231:He who can does; he who cannot teaches. ~ george-bernard-shaw, @wisdomtrove 232:He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 233:He who fears God has nothing else to fear. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 234:He who has God finds he is lacking nothing. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 235:He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 236:He who has overcome his fears will truly be free. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 237:He who is unmoved by tears has no heart. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 238:He who sows hurry reaps indigestion. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 239:He who understands nature walks close with God. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 240:He who would search for pearls must dive below. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 241:He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 242:If not now, then when ? If not you, then who ? ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 243:In love, the one who runs away is the winner. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 244:It is often our best friends who throw us down. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 245:It's the wise man who stays home when he's drunk. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 246:Love is what you make it and who you make it with. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 247:Man is, above all, he who creates. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 248:No one who is young is ever going to be old. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 249:Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 250:Person who chases two rabbits catches neither. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 251:The world belongs to those who persevere. ~ nathaniel-branden, @wisdomtrove 252:They who are sad find somehow sweetness in tears. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 253:They who forgive most shall be most forgiven. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 254:Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 255:Too often, the person who wrecks our work is us. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 256:To those who are given much, much is expected. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 257:When you cease to exist, then who will you blame? ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 258:Who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 259:Who heeds not the future will find sorrow at hand ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 260:Who you are is love. What love does is heal. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 261:Woe to the man who offends a small child! ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 262:Yield to him who opposes you; by yielding you conquer. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 263:Anyone who influences others is a leader. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 264:Anyone who truly loves God travels securely. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 265:Artists are those who can evade the verbose. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 266:A saint is a sinner who never gave up. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 267:Everyone who's a success, is a continual learner. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 268:God always strives together with those who strive. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 269:God helps those who cannot help themselves. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 270:God loves to help him who strives to help himself. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 271:God who gives the wound gives the salve. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 272:He has the most who is most content with the least. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 273:He is the truly courageous man who never desponds. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 274:He's a fool who cannot conceal his wisdom. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 275:He who does not go within, goes without. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 276:He who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere. ~ omar-khayyam, @wisdomtrove 277:He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 278:He who speaks without an attentive ear is mute. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 279:He who take cookie to bed have crummy night ahead. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 280:I am one who has been acquainted with the night ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 281:I am what I am because of who we all are. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 282:I who am in the night will move into the day. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 283:Let the man who does not wish to be idle, fall in love. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 284:Long tarries destiny, But comes to those who pray. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 285:Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 286:Men who have much to say use the fewest words. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 287:Oh, if we would only remember who God is! ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 288:Saints are sinners who kept on going. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 289:She's the original good time who was had by all. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 290:The man who ain't got an enemy is really poor. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 291:The people who matter will recognize who you are. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 292:Those have not lived who have not seen Rome. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 293:Abraxas was the god who was both god and devil. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 294:Ah, happy years! once more who would not be a boy? ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 295:Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 296:A person cannot forget someone who is good to them. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 297:a vast deal may be done by those who dare to act. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 298:Be naked in the splendor of the truth of who you are. ~ gangaji, @wisdomtrove 299:Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 300:For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief? ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 301:Freedom of press is limited to those who own one. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 302:God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 303:He makes no friend who never made a foe. ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 304:He who does not act does not exist. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 305:He who has lost his money-belt will go where you wish. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 306:He who is his own guide is guided by a fool. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 307:He who is not a good servant will not be a good master. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 308:He, who is not prepared today, will be less so tomorrow. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 309:He who masters the grey everyday is a hero. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 310:I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat animals who are. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 311:I'm not the sort of person who fears failure. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 312:It is not only the living who are killed in war. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 313:It is the foregiver who is freed in foregiving. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 314:Men who not religious or artists are fools. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 315:No matter who reigns, the merchant reigns. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 316:People who boast about their I.Q. are losers. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 317:The implements to him who can handle them. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 318:There's a Chaplain who never visited the front. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 319:The wise man is he who knows when and how to stop ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 320:The world is run by the people who show up. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 321:Those who love wisdom must investigate many things ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 322:Those who think must govern those that toil. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 323:Those who won't take a chance don't have a chance. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 324:What can a man do with music who is not benevolent? ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 325:What we know matters but who we are matters more. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 326:Who after wine, talks of wars hardships or of poverty. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 327:Who can take away suffering without entering it? ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 328:Who, for false quantities, was whipped at school. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 329:Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 330:Who you are moment to moment is just a story. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 331:You get to know who you really are in a crisis. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 332:And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 333:Anyone who does anything useful will not go unpaid. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 334:Chance never helps those who do not help themselves. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 335:Girl who sit on Judge's lap get honorable discharge. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 336:Give, do not lend; after death who will thank you? ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 337:Heaven never helps the man who will not help himself ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 338:He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 339:He who breathes deepest lives most. ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 340:He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 341:He who controls the spice controls the universe. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 342:He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 343:He who endeavors to please must appear pleased. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 344:He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise -begin! ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 345:He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 346:He who makes no mistakes makes no progress. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 347:He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 348:I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 349:I'm always tripped up by the eternal who am I? ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 350:It is commonly a weak man who marries for love. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 351:Man is Creation's masterpiece. But who says so? ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 352:One who steals has no right to complain if he is robbed. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 353:Power gravitates to the man who knows how. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 354:She who saves a single soul, saves the universe. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 355:Sleep ... peace of the soul, who puttest care to flight. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 356:The child who concentrates is immensely happy ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 357:The man who has no problems is out of the game. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 358:The man who wins, is the man who thinks he can. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 359:The one who is happy, that's the one who is right. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 360:There never was a winner, who wasn't a beginner. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 361:Those who have suffered make the best comforters. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 362:Those who play a safe game die very safely. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 363:What is right is more important than who is right. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 364:When you can swim, who cares how deep the water is? ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 365:Who bears eternal summer in his soul. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-jr, @wisdomtrove 366:Who can determine where one ends and the other begins? ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 367:Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 368:Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 369:A fanatic is a nut who has something to believe in. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 370:God who sends the wound sends the medicine. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 371:Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 372:Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb? ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 373:Help another and you will be the one who benefits most ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 374:He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 375:He who never says "no" is no true man. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 376:I hate victims who respect their executioners. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 377:Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 378:People like people who help them like themselves. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 379:The fun is having friends who help each other get free. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 380:The Great Man is a man who lives a long way off. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 381:The man who falls in love chill find plenty of occupation. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 382:The man who fights for his ideals is alive. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 383:Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 384:Those who are absorbed in Brahman become immortal. ~ adi-shankara, @wisdomtrove 385:Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 386:Those who build walls are their own prisoners. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 387:Those who love each other shall become invincible. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 388:To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 389:When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 390:Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others? ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 391:Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 392:Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 393:Who is wise in love, love most, say least. ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 394:Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 395:Who thinks you're as fantastic as your dog does? ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 396:Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 397:Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 398:Your smile brightens the lives of all who see it. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 399:All must respect those who respect themselves. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 400:A man never has good luck who has a bad wife. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 401:An enemy is anyone who tells the truth about you. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 402:A thief is one who insists on sharing his victimhood. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 403:Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 404:Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 405:He's the kind of man who picks his friends - to pieces. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 406:He who argues for his limitations gets to keep them ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 407:He who makes the quickest, coolest prototypes reigns! ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 408:He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 409:He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 410:I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too? ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 411:I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 412:I never knew a writer's wife who wasn't beautiful. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 413:In war it is not men, but the man who counts. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 414:It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 415:Listen to no man who has not listened to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 416:Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 417:No man can be an agnostic who has a sense of humour. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 418:Obscenity, who really cares. Propaganda, all is phony. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 419:The & 420:The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 421:The man who has lost his purse will go wherever you wish. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 422:The tools belong to the man who can use them. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 423:Those who gossip with you will gossip about you. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 424:Troubles take wing for the man who can sing. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 425:Who Killed Davey Moore? Why and what's the reason for? ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 426:Who says that my dreams have to just stay my dreams? ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 427:Who so loves believes the impossible. ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 428:You couldn't not like someone who liked the guitar. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 429:A girl does not need anyone who does not need her. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 430:Any man who eats dessert is not drinking enough. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 431:A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 432:Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 433:Everything comes too late for those who only wait. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 434:Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 435:Find someone who is willing to share the truth with you. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 436:He marries best who puts it off until it is too late. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 437:He who desires but does not act, breeds pestilence. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 438:He who has a why can deal with any what or how. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 439:He who has suffered you to impose on him knows you. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 440:He who is served is limited in his independence. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 441:He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 442:He who would greatly deserve must greatly dare. ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove 443:I am who I am and I have the need to be. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 444:I guess everybody who isn't dead yet is a survivor. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 445:It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 446:No man can write who is not first a humanitarian ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 447:Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 448:People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 449:Success come to those who become success conscious. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 450:Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless? ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 451:That man is idle who can do something better. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 452:The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 453:They do not truly love who do not show their love. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 454:Those who do not know how to fight worry die young. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 455:Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 456:To change what you get you must change who you are. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 457:Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end? ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 458:Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 459:Who then may trust the dice, at Fortune's throw? ~ geoffrey-chaucer, @wisdomtrove 460:Who will ever kiss this encyclopedia of a head? ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 461:Who will you have to become to achieve all you want? ~ tony-robbins, @wisdomtrove 462:You should never trust a person who prays in public. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 463:Aslan: You doubt your value. Don't run from who you are. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 464:Congress, n. A body of men who meet to repeal laws. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 465:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 466:Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 467:He is truly great in who hath power over himself. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 468:He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 469:He who has enough for his wants should desire nothing more. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 470:He who has made great moral progress ceases to pray. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 471:He who hears not me but the logos will say: All is one. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 472:He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 473:How easy for those who do not bulge to not overindulge! ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 474:How futile are words in the ears of those who mourn. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 475:I am not one of those women who can stand things. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 476:If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 477:I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 478:I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 479:It makes a difference who the treasury secretary is. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 480:One who can move mountains start with the little stones. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 481:People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 482:Question: Who governs the governors? Answer: Entropy ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 483:Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove 484:The creative adult is the child who has survived. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 485:The fool who persists in his folly will become wise. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 486:The man who loves his job never works a day in his life. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 487:They only are wise who know that they know nothing. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 488:Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 489:Those who walk with God always reach their destination. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 490:Twice does he live who can enjoy the remembrance of the past. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 491:What you go through is nothing compared to who you are. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 492:When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 493:Who is free from sin? One who chants the name of God. ~ adi-shankara, @wisdomtrove 494:Who shall make me perfect? I am perfect already. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 495:A scatterbrain is one who never has an unspoken thought. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 496:A superior man is one who is free from fear and anxieties ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 497:He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 498:He who conquers the mind, conquers the world. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 499:He who keeps danger in mind will rest safely in his seat. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 500:He who regards all things as one is a companion of Nature. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:friends who ~ William W Johnstone, #NFDB
2:THE BOY WHO LIVED M ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
3:Trust one who has tried. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
4:who applied for ~ Linda Fairstein, #NFDB
5:Who born so poor, ~ Robert Pollok, #NFDB
6:Who. Hit. You? ~ Lilith Saintcrow, #NFDB
7:Who seeks shall find. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
8:Remember who God is. ~ Renee Swope, #NFDB
9:who are sent to ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
10:who can you trust? ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
11:Who, of men, can tell ~ John Keats, #NFDB
12:Who's there? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
13:Who the fuck is Gladys? ~ K C Lynn, #NFDB
14:you-know-who.” Amy ~ Gordon Korman, #NFDB
15:Clara, who’d said ~ Johnny B Truant, #NFDB
16:First of all, who's your A&R? ~ GZA, #NFDB
17:Men who only live to eat. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
18:One who rules is ruled. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
19:Own who you are. ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
20:wanted the people who ~ Marie Force, #NFDB
21:Who knows anybody? ~ Derek Kirk Kim, #NFDB
22:Who watches the watchmen? ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
23:Bono? Who the hell is that? ~ Redman, #NFDB
24:Chigarid. The man who ~ John Berendt, #NFDB
25:Fear--who cares? ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
26:He who is contented is rich. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
27:He who tastes not, knows not. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
28:It's me who is my enemy ~ Paula Cole, #NFDB
29:Now, who— ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix, #NFDB
30:Rape? Who enjoys that ~ Meghan March, #NFDB
31:Revile those who flatter you. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
32:So who are you today? ~ Pete Hautman, #NFDB
33:The God Who Wasn’t There ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
34:Who ain't a slave? ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
35:Who can blind lover's eyes? ~ Virgil, #NFDB
36:Who gives to Aristaeus honey; ~ Ovid, #NFDB
37:Who is Mr. Radnor? ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
38:Who needs sleep, anyway? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
39:Who or what is an Ipod? ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
40:Who Stole the Tarts? ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
41:All who love have lied. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
42:I like to be who I am. ~ Hal Holbrook, #NFDB
43:like Daleks in Dr Who. ~ Joe McKinney, #NFDB
44:She who is brave is free. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
45:throughout America, who ~ Erik Larson, #NFDB
46:who are we forgetting ~ Michael Grant, #NFDB
47:Who but knows ~ William Ernest Henley, #NFDB
48:Who could trust language? ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
49:Who obeys, shines. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
50:Who’s your best buddy? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
51:Who the fuck is King? ~ Elaine Levine, #NFDB
52:A man who is 100% sane is dead. ~ Osho, #NFDB
53:Be proud of who you are. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
54:Be who you really are. ~ Sergio Garcia, #NFDB
55:but z he who pursues evil ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
56:For those who believe. ~ Kathryn Lasky, #NFDB
57:He who hoards much loses much. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
58:He who is contented is rich. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
59:He who learns must suffer. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
60:Never forget who you are. ~ Teri Terry, #NFDB
61:Never hide who you are, ~ Kim Harrison, #NFDB
62:This is who the fuck I am. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
63:thou who herd’st nerfs, ~ Ian Doescher, #NFDB
64:We are who we choose to be, ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
65:Who can judge the judge? ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
66:Who dares ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, #NFDB
67:Who dreams of a son, ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
68:Who owes you an explanation? ~ J Thorn, #NFDB
69:Who's happy these days? ~ Ethel Merman, #NFDB
70:Who the shit is Otis? ~ Caris O Malley, #NFDB
71:Who was Jesus? God saves. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
72:Ye who dwell at home, ~ Robert Southey, #NFDB
73:Ask me who I don't dress! ~ Coco Chanel, #NFDB
74:Be who you seem to be. ~ Maggie Osborne, #NFDB
75:But who guards the guardians? ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
76:Don't run from who you are. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
77:Fortune favors those who dare. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
78:Grace is a God who stoops. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
79:He who despairs is wrong. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
80:He who laughs.....lasts. ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
81:I feel good about who I am. ~ Anna Torv, #NFDB
82:If Not You, Who Else? ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
83:I'm not even who I am, yet. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
84:lucky son of a bitch who ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
85:MS doesn't define who I am. ~ Teri Garr, #NFDB
86:not Max … who is it? ~ Alex Michaelides, #NFDB
87:Tell me who I am. (29) ~ Mary E Pearson, #NFDB
88:the diary of a doctor who ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
89:Those who don't feed themselves ~ Mario, #NFDB
90:Those who hate are kin. ~ Richard Marsh, #NFDB
91:who are the brain police? ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
92:Who betrays whom first. ~ Susan Dennard, #NFDB
93:Who can discern his errors? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
94:Who doesn’t love cock? ~ Hanif Kureishi, #NFDB
95:Who Has Won to Mastership ~ Jack London, #NFDB
96:Who invented my life? ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
97:Who is the honest man? ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
98:Who is the monster now? ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
99:Who knows the end? What ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
100:Who says I belong in Heaven? ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
101:Who's stupid now, Jimbo?! ~ April Henry, #NFDB
102:Who's your fat friend ? ~ Beau Brummell, #NFDB
103:You blows who you is. ~ Louis Armstrong, #NFDB
104:But to those who kept saying ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
105:Do you know who did it? ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
106:Fortune sides with he who dares ~ Virgil, #NFDB
107:God himself helps those who dare. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
108:He who labours, prays. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
109:I am the LORD who heals you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
110:I’m a dancer who cannot dance. ~ Marilyn, #NFDB
111:I'm a lying liar who lies. ~ Kelley York, #NFDB
112:is the man who finds wisdom, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
113:My dreams tell me who I am. ~ F bio Moon, #NFDB
114:Nobody who wasn’t down there ~ Glen Cook, #NFDB
115:Scottsdale, Arizona, who ~ John Sandford, #NFDB
116:Those who can't do, teach! ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
117:Those who show off do not shine. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
118:What does who call me when? ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
119:Who, being loved, is poor? ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
120:Who don't listen, feels. ~ Naomi Jackson, #NFDB
121:Who Do You Think You Are? ~ Alan Cumming, #NFDB
122:Who has begun has half done.
~ Horace,#NFDB
123:Who sail on stormy seas; ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
124:Who would true valour see, ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
125:You cannot be who you were. ~ D J Molles, #NFDB
126:A man who has been in danger, ~ Euripides, #NFDB
127:Become who you are! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
128:be who you set out to be... ~ Gino Norris, #NFDB
129:Be with those who help your being. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
130:But who do you say that I am? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
131:Context shapes who you are. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
132:Date a girl who reads ~ Rosemarie Urquico, #NFDB
133:Do we choose who we love? ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
134:He who has wealth has friends. ~ Chanakya, #NFDB
135:He who hesitates is lost ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
136:"He who is contented is rich." ~ Lao Tzu道, #NFDB
137:He who loves not lives not. ~ Ramon Llull, #NFDB
138:I found out who I was. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
139:I have no doubt who I am. ~ Jeanne Moreau, #NFDB
140:I'm a people person...who drinks. ~ Homer, #NFDB
141:John-who-wasn’t-gonna-get-none ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
142:The men who create power ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
143:Whe can't escape who we are ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
144:Who are you trying to impress? ~ Bob Goff, #NFDB
145:Who can fear ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, #NFDB
146:Who I am hates who I've been. ~ Relient K, #NFDB
147:who is this we, white man, ~ Annie Bellet, #NFDB
148:Who knows what real really is... ~ Poppet, #NFDB
149:who says dog means dog? ~ Andrew Clements, #NFDB
150:Who spit in your porridge? ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
151:Who's started has half finished. ~ Horace, #NFDB
152:who the ruddy hell are you? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
153:Who will bell the cat? ~ William Langland, #NFDB
154:You the one in all, say who I am. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
155:A man who is 100% sane is dead. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
156:Fortune sides with him who dares. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
157:He who sling mud, lose ground. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
158:I'm a prince who likes dresses. ~ Jen Wang, #NFDB
159:I was so ashamed of who I was. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
160:NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST. ~ Sonja Yoerg, #NFDB
161:Only those live who do good. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
162:South Central is just who I am. ~ Ice Cube, #NFDB
163:So who else volunteered? ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
164:The boy who walks in the light. ~ Marie Lu, #NFDB
165:Those who boast are not respected. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
166:Those who desire power want to ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
167:Who are you, Lucy Snowe? ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
168:Who aspires must down as low ~ John Milton, #NFDB
169:Who does a goddess pray to? ~ Sarah Diemer, #NFDB
170:who doesn’t know Dumbledore? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
171:Who do you let in? ~ Sabrina Ward Harrison, #NFDB
172:Who God possesseth ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
173:Who is his manager? Milton Bradley. ~ Edge, #NFDB
174:Who's that, the windbreaker? ~ Paul Heyman, #NFDB
175:Who the *&^$* is "Paolo"? ~ Daniel Way, #NFDB
176:Who will be my equal? ~ Cardinal Richelieu, #NFDB
177:You are who you choose to be. ~ Ted Hughes, #NFDB
178:All those who teach are hated. ~ Gene Wolfe, #NFDB
179:A man who causes fear cannot be ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
180:And who was my godly parent? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
181:Anyone who bombs is my friend. ~ Todd Barry, #NFDB
182:blessed are the stupid who can dream ~ Bono, #NFDB
183:Blind is he who will not see! ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
184:Claude Lévi-Strauss, who ~ Daniel J Levitin, #NFDB
185:Frying pans! Who knew, right? ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
186:Give your weakness to one who helps. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
187:God helps him who strives hard. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
188:God, I love a man who reads ~ Tiffany Reisz, #NFDB
189:He was a wise man who invented God. ~ Plato, #NFDB
190:He who can copy can do. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
191:He who flees will fight again. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
192:He who integrates is lost. ~ Theodor Adorno, #NFDB
193:he who is greedy is always in want ~ Horace, #NFDB
194:He who knows he has enough is rich. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
195:He who laughs last, laughs best. ~ Triple H, #NFDB
196:He who sleeps does not sin. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
197:I am who I am and that's it! ~ Jen Calonita, #NFDB
198:I pity the man who can’t cry. ~ Janny Wurts, #NFDB
199:Mistakes make us who we are. ~ Lisa De Jong, #NFDB
200:Never compromise who you are. ~ N G Osborne, #NFDB
201:Not all who wonders are lost. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
202:Often they benefit who suffer wrong. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
203:options. Who was he? He ~ Catherine Coulter, #NFDB
204:someone who is puffed up and ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
205:There is someone who looks after us ~ Rumi, #NFDB
206:Trust one who has gone through it. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
207:We are who we pretend to be. ~ Joy Fielding, #NFDB
208:Who guides below, and rules above, ~ Horace, #NFDB
209:Who isn't fascinated by evil? ~ Marvin Gaye, #NFDB
210:Who sighs from far away? ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
211:Who stops learning may be old. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
212:Who's to say who's an expert? ~ Paul Newman, #NFDB
213:Who Will Cry When You Die? ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
214:and all the people who were ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
215:Anyone who has hope is happy ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
216:Autism is part of who I am. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
217:Be who you are and own that shit ~ B L Berry, #NFDB
218:Come on! Who wants to fight me? ~ John Fante, #NFDB
219:Find some dreamers, people who ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
220:Glory to he who brings dispute. ~ Jean Rouch, #NFDB
221:He can do most who has most power. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
222:He was a wise man who invented God. ~ Plato, #NFDB
223:He who feels it, knows it more. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
224:He who hid well, lived well. ~ Ren Descartes, #NFDB
225:He who is greedy is always in want. ~ Horace, #NFDB
226:He who knows himself is enlightened. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
227:HE WHO LAUGHS LAST LAUGHS BEST ~ Teddy Wayne, #NFDB
228:He who overcomes others is strong; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
229:He who suffers, triumphs. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
230:I am not the one who loves - ~ Leonard Cohen, #NFDB
231:I am one who lives to learn. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
232:If we don't dream, who will? ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
233:I love people who are real. ~ Moon Bloodgood, #NFDB
234:I met a girl who sang the blues ~ Don McLean, #NFDB
235:I'm Marcus Hunter. Who are you? ~ Shane Kuhn, #NFDB
236:I will decide who is a Jew! ~ Hermann Goring, #NFDB
237:Life is the people who love you. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
238:Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
239:Never trust a man who can dance. ~ E L James, #NFDB
240:Only those who dare may fly ~ Luis Sep lveda, #NFDB
241:She who hesitates is lost. ~ Elizabeth Letts, #NFDB
242:Smiles come best from those who weep. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
243:The glory is for those who deserve. ~ Horace, #NFDB
244:THE ONLY ONE WHO CARES Cat Grant ~ Cat Grant, #NFDB
245:Those who can truly see, know. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
246:Those who love others ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
247:we forgive those who trespass ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
248:Who asks a king for a penny? ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
249:Who have you chosen to become? ~ Bill Jensen, #NFDB
250:Who knows that about anybody? ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
251:Who runs the world? Girls. ~ Beyonce Knowles, #NFDB
252:Who’s Cedric – your boyfriend? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
253:Who's gonna dare to be great? ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
254:Who’s the Angelfucker now? ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
255:Who’s willing to test her bluff? ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
256:Who taught you to hate yourself? ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
257:Who the heck is Don Quick-oats? ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
258:Who wants to live forever? ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
259:Who was the monster, here? ~ Liesl Shurtliff, #NFDB
260:Who you are is always right. ~ Ming Dao Deng, #NFDB
261:Your family is who you are. ~ Eben Alexander, #NFDB
262:All good things to those who wait. ~ Hannibal, #NFDB
263:A man who had felt less, might. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
264:And our dreams are who we are. ~ Barbara Sher, #NFDB
265:Are you who I think you are? ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
266:Be what you can for who you can. ~ Ranae Rose, #NFDB
267:Be who you are, and go the whole way. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
268:Even a man who's pure in heart ~ Curt Siodmak, #NFDB
269:Evil Be He Who Thinketh Evil ~ Rebecca Maizel, #NFDB
270:Guess who fucking won? Alrik ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
271:Handsome is he who handsome does. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
272:He is not poor who has a competency. ~ Horace, #NFDB
273:He who eats alone chokes alone. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
274:He who hesitates is a damned fool. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
275:He who hid well, lived well. ~ Rene Descartes, #NFDB
276:He who is brave is free. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
277:He who knows he has enough, is rich ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
278:He who laughs most, learns best ~ John Cleese, #NFDB
279:he who overcomes himself is mighty. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
280:He who retreats lives longer. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
281:I don't know how, but I know Who ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
282:I’m a refugee who can vote. ~ Andrew McCarthy, #NFDB
283:Its not who you love. Its how. ~ Ben Affleck, #NFDB
284:I want to be true to who I am. ~ Annie Lennox, #NFDB
285:knew who they were, what she’d ~ Katie Ruggle, #NFDB
286:My history defines who I am. ~ Simone Elkeles, #NFDB
287:Nobody can teach me who I am. ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
288:Only one who risks is free. ~ Leo F Buscaglia, #NFDB
289:People who give a shit are sexy. ~ Scott Hahn, #NFDB
290:Put faith in one who's had experience. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
291:Quis ut Deus?
Who is like God? ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
292:someone who sneaked into the ~ M Louisa Locke, #NFDB
293:Stand by those who stand by you. ~ Mac Miller, #NFDB
294:The king is the man who can. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
295:Those who act receive the prizes. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
296:Those who are unswerving have resolve ~ Laozi, #NFDB
297:Those who trust us educate us. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
298:Ware the man who fakes a limp. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
299:We love who we love, don’t we? ~ Sarah Winman, #NFDB
300:We who must die demand a miracle. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
301:Who acts in haste repents at leisure. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
302:Who are the violets now ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
303:Who but lovers dream alike? ~ Lloyd Alexander, #NFDB
304:Who can clip its wings? ~ Mary Wollstonecraft, #NFDB
305:Who did nothing but sit there. ~ Randi Darren, #NFDB
306:Who flipped your bitch switch? ~ Quinn Loftis, #NFDB
307:Who knew love could kill you? ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
308:Who let the dogs out? Who, who. ~ Mitt Romney, #NFDB
309:Who pissed on your cornflakes? ~ Andrea Smith, #NFDB
310:who says communication needs words. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
311:Who talks much, must talk in vain. ~ John Gay, #NFDB
312:Who wants to live forever? ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
313:who was wearing a very handsome ~ Jane Smiley, #NFDB
314:Who will speak for Planet Earth? ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
315:You are who you pretend to be ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
316:You become who you pretend to be. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
317:You don't choose who you love. ~ Heidi Montag, #NFDB
318:2Now a man who was lame from birth ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
319:A good man who did a bad thing. ~ Mary Matalin, #NFDB
320:An artist who no longer creates. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
321:Being Who You Are is a Prayer ~ Grazyna Wolska, #NFDB
322:By the way, who invented Peace? ~ Paul Virilio, #NFDB
323:Choose to love the one who does not die ~ Rumi, #NFDB
324:Do not resist the one who is evil. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
325:Don't be afraid of who you are. ~ Jen Williams, #NFDB
326:Don't be afraid to show who you are. ~ Omarion, #NFDB
327:Evil be he who thinketh evil. ~ Rebecca Maizel, #NFDB
328:For Leslie who taught me to fly ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
329:For who that noght dar undertake, ~ John Gower, #NFDB
330:Friends who kiss might be good. ~ Cindi Madsen, #NFDB
331:He does much who loves much. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
332:He truly sorrows who sorrows unseen. ~ Martial, #NFDB
333:He who demands little gets it. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
334:He who fights and runs away ~ Oliver Goldsmith, #NFDB
335:he who knows himself is intelligent. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
336:He who laughs most, learns best. ~ John Cleese, #NFDB
337:He who talks more is sooner exhausted. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
338:He who treads softly goes far. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
339:I am a child who is getting on. ~ Marc Chagall, #NFDB
340:I detest those who deceive me... ~ Steve Berry, #NFDB
341:I do not know who I am tonight. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
342:I don't even know who Joey Barton is. ~ Neymar, #NFDB
343:I need to become who I already am ~ Sarah Kane, #NFDB
344:I read books. I know who I am. ~ Daniel Orozco, #NFDB
345:Lord! who hath praise enough? ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
346:Lucky is the man who dies at work. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
347:Mood has a scuba section? Who knew? ~ Tim Gunn, #NFDB
348:Name one hero who was happy. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
349:Never kill a man who says nothing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
350:No one who lives in error is free. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
351:No one who reads can ever be bored, ~ Ann Hood, #NFDB
352:No one who reads can ever be bored. ~ Ann Hood, #NFDB
353:One who is allowed to sin, sins less ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
354:Only those who seek shall find. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
355:Our experiences shape who we are. ~ Kelly Oram, #NFDB
356:our lives teach us who we are ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
357:Percy, who was looking immensely ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
358:Power flows to those who serve. ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
359:Some of the press who speak ~ Geoffrey Fisher, #NFDB
360:there who’ll take advantage. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
361:Those who are dead are not dead ~ Chris Martin, #NFDB
362:Those who don't build must burn ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
363:Value the people who value YOU. ~ Bill Withers, #NFDB
364:We are who people think we are. ~ David Foster, #NFDB
365:What you do isn’t who you are. ~ Dominic Smith, #NFDB
366:Who am I to judge a gay person? ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
367:Who buys French cars? Not me. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
368:Who called the idiot brigade? ~ Natsuki Takaya, #NFDB
369:Who gave thee, O Beauty, ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
370:Who gets to decide what you want? ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
371:Who gives to all, denies all. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
372:Who has the data has the power. ~ Tim O Reilly, #NFDB
373:Who I ram strangers my skin. ~ Sean Kilpatrick, #NFDB
374:Who is this god person anyway? ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
375:Who knows most, doubts most. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
376:Who knows what any man can do? ~ David Lindsay, #NFDB
377:Who knows why men do anything? ~ Richard Adams, #NFDB
378:Who’ll try it?” Samantha asked. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
379:Who loves a lot, forgives a lot. ~ Amado Nervo, #NFDB
380:Who rebels with mathematics? ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
381:Who rules well is always hated. ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
382:Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ~ Edward Albee, #NFDB
383:Who says it's all of a sudden? ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
384:who says wicked can’t be good? ~ Deborah Blake, #NFDB
385:Who we are right now is okay. ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
386:Who would end up the villain? ~ Soman Chainani, #NFDB
387:Who wrote that?” Tink asked. ~ Andrew Peterson, #NFDB
388:With money, who needs friends? ~ Frank Gorshin, #NFDB
389:You can't blame me for who I am. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
390:You love only those who deserve it. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
391:You never know who’s watching. ~ Don Mattingly, #NFDB
392:And who will protect me from him? ~ Cora Reilly, #NFDB
393:A shark who dreamed he was a man. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
394:A writer is someone who writes! ~ Pat Schneider, #NFDB
395:Blame the guy who doesn't speak Engish. ~ Homer, #NFDB
396:Choose people who lift you up. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
397:Do what you do and be who you are. ~ Nick Saban, #NFDB
398:Evil to him who evil thinks,.... ~ Karen Harper, #NFDB
399:For they conquer who believe they can. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
400:For those who seeks , will find . ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
401:He laughs best who laughs last. ~ John Vanbrugh, #NFDB
402:He looked up at Wyatt, who was ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
403:He who becomes dizzy is lost. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
404:He who brings kola brings life. ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
405:He who can simulate sanity will be sane. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
406:He who does not work, will not eat ~ John Smith, #NFDB
407:He who doubts from what he sees ~ William Blake, #NFDB
408:He who hath many friends hath none. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
409:He who knows other men is discerning; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
410:He will have true glory who despises it. ~ Livy, #NFDB
411:I am a person who is not mated. ~ Sarah Paulson, #NFDB
412:I am not the person who is singing ~ Paula Cole, #NFDB
413:If we dont heal our own hood, who will? ~ Nelly, #NFDB
414:I love pop music. Who doesn't? ~ Shirley Manson, #NFDB
415:I love who I am and all that I do. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
416:I'm not a guy who gets inspirations. ~ Stan Lee, #NFDB
417:I’m not perfect.” “Who the hell is? ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
418:I want to reclaim who I am. ~ Elizabeth Edwards, #NFDB
419:I wish you weren't who you are... ~ Carian Cole, #NFDB
420:Knowing who you are is confidence. ~ Mila Kunis, #NFDB
421:Love the people who love you back. ~ Laura Ruby, #NFDB
422:Madoc has no idea who he is. ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
423:No one is who they pretend to be ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
424:No one who is anyone anymore. ~ John Katzenbach, #NFDB
425:Now I know who the Holy Spirit is. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
426:One of them is lying. But who? ~ Sarah Pekkanen, #NFDB
427:Our choices make us who we are, ~ Dot Hutchison, #NFDB
428:Our lives teach us who we are. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
429:Peace might sell, but who's buying? ~ Joan Baez, #NFDB
430:Pray for those who chose and oppose ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
431:Sleep and Death, who are twin brothers. ~ Homer, #NFDB
432:Sweet is war to those who know it not. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
433:The gods help them who help themselves. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
434:They are able who think they are able. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
435:They can conquer who believe they can. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
436:They never taste who always drink. ~ Matt Prior, #NFDB
437:Those who can’t succeed, teach. ~ Anthony Marra, #NFDB
438:Those who don't build must burn. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
439:Those who fear men like laws. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
440:Those who have eyes see little . ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
441:Those who have wisdom have all: ~ Thiruvalluvar, #NFDB
442:Those who plant trees plant hope. ~ Lucy Larcom, #NFDB
443:To all the people who fought back. ~ Simon Wood, #NFDB
444:We are who we are. Lottery is stupid. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
445:We become who we hang out with. ~ Napoleon Hill, #NFDB
446:We who are born, are born to die. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
447:Where you are is not who you are ~ Ursula Burns, #NFDB
448:Who are we without our memories? ~ Marta Acosta, #NFDB
449:Who are you?
Your angel. Vengeance. ~ Poppet,#NFDB
450:Who can control his fate? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
451:Who designed this world we live in? ~ Midge Ure, #NFDB
452:Who does not grow, declines. ~ Hillel the Elder, #NFDB
453:Who eat their corn while yet 'tis green ~ Saadi, #NFDB
454:who have very playful puppies! ~ Betty G Birney, #NFDB
455:who is invisible enough to see you ~ Paul Celan, #NFDB
456:Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles? ~ John Scofield, #NFDB
457:Who said love was reasonable? ~ Johanna Lindsey, #NFDB
458:Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? ~ Carol S Dweck, #NFDB
459:Who says wicked can’t be good ? ~ Deborah Blake, #NFDB
460:Who’s to say what’s impossible? ~ Jack Johnson, #NFDB
461:Who that man in the black Sedan ~ Mickey Avalon, #NFDB
462:Who the fuck is Old Jolene? ~ Matthew Rosenberg, #NFDB
463:who the heck is dorothy gale? ~ Douglas Preston, #NFDB
464:Who then devised the torment? Love. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
465:Who was I if I was no longer me? ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
466:Who you are trumps what you do. ~ Michael Makai, #NFDB
467:Wisest is he who knows he knows not. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
468:You have to be proud of who you are. ~ Bai Ling, #NFDB
469:12[†] d Who can discern his errors? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
470:All who are born are always dying. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
471:All who oppose me must be broken! ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
472:And some win peace who spend ~ Walter de La Mare, #NFDB
473:A woman who writes feels too much. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
474:Base men who prosper are unenviable. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
475:Best is the man who thinks for himself. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
476:Dance with the one who brung you. ~ Randy Pausch, #NFDB
477:Ego is a ghost who is terrified of dying ~ Mooji, #NFDB
478:Everyone I know who skis is dead. ~ Will Ferrell, #NFDB
479:God, who oft descends to visit men ~ John Milton, #NFDB
480:Happy he who far from business persuits ~ Horace, #NFDB
481:Happy is he who causes a scandal ~ Salvador Dali, #NFDB
482:He buries gold who hides the truth. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
483:He conquers who endures.’ Remember ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
484:He does not weep who does not see. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
485:He who complains, sins. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
486:He who does not weep does not see. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
487:He who is abandoned is an abandoner, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
488:He who slings mud loses ground. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
489:He who talks more is sooner exhausted. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
490:Hire people who intimidate you. ~ Machel Montano, #NFDB
491:I admire people who are creative. ~ Luise Rainer, #NFDB
492:I am a champion who makes an impact. ~ John Cena, #NFDB
493:I am who I was and who I will be. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
494:I don’t like people who are late. ~ Anna Wintour, #NFDB
495:I don't look like who I am. ~ Barbara Kingsolver, #NFDB
496:If not me- who?, If not now- when? ~ Emma Watson, #NFDB
497:If we don't play God, who will? ~ James D Watson, #NFDB
498:I just want you to know who I am. ~ John Rzeznik, #NFDB
499:I love men who make me laugh. ~ Nastassja Kinski, #NFDB
500:I love the one who punishes me well. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
501:I want somebody who's gonna need me. ~ Anna Torv, #NFDB
502:I was raised right. I dig who I am. ~ Scott Caan, #NFDB
503:I, who am I among living creatures? ~ Enheduanna, #NFDB
504:Jesus wants men who will rule well. ~ Tony Evans, #NFDB
505:men in high collars who might—this ~ Peter Carey, #NFDB
506:No one is who they pretend to be. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
507:No one who errs unwillingly is evil. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
508:No one who goes against her can win. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
509:Oh! Who can be ever tired of Bath? ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
510:Once again I am only who I am. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
511:Only those who seek shall find. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
512:People who give will never be poor. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
513:People who know me, know who I am. ~ Jason Momoa, #NFDB
514:People who think well, write well ~ David Ogilvy, #NFDB
515:Seek people who seek solutions. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
516:Somebody who should have been born ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
517:sometimes you meet people who make you ~ Mod Sun, #NFDB
518:So who do I want to be tomorrow? ~ Paula Hawkins, #NFDB
519:The man who walks with Henslow. ~ Charles Darwin, #NFDB
520:The one man who changed everything. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
521:The person who fails the most wins. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
522:The world belongs to those who let go. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
523:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
524:Those who do not weep, do not see. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
525:those whom I love and those who ~ Robert Bryndza, #NFDB
526:Those who suffer most cry out the least. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
527:Those who tell the stories rule society. ~ Plato, #NFDB
528:Wee know not who lives or dies. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
529:When Heaven breaks, who fixes it? ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
530:Who am I? I’m the Breeze, bitch! ~ Michael Grant, #NFDB
531:Who are you when no one is watching? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
532:Who can rest until the moment of action? ~ Laozi, #NFDB
533:who'd found a whole bed of mice. ~ Carolyn Brown, #NFDB
534:Who God doth late and early pray, ~ Henry Wotton, #NFDB
535:Who has magnificent self-confidence ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
536:Who has not served cannot command. ~ John Florio, #NFDB
537:Who is't can read a woman? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
538:Who is to guard the guards themselves? ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
539:Who laughs less than feminists? ~ Tucker Carlson, #NFDB
540:Who made the heart, 'tis He alone ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
541:Who never lost, are unprepared ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
542:(Who refrigerates their bread?) ~ Laura Thalassa, #NFDB
543:Who Saddam Hussein kills, dies. ~ Jeffrey Archer, #NFDB
544:Who said life was fair? Indeed. Who? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
545:Who said nights were for sleep? ~ Marilyn Monroe, #NFDB
546:Who sows virtue reaps honor. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
547:Who's possessing who now, Casper? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
548:who stood by as the consequences ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
549:Who then is sane? He who is not a fool. ~ Horace, #NFDB
550:Who will guard against the guardians? ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
551:Who would you be but who you are? ~ Terry Brooks, #NFDB
552:You are not, who you think you are ~ Vivian Amis, #NFDB
553:You love who you love, who you love ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
554:You see in others who you are. ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
555:All things come to him who waits ~ Woodrow Wilson, #NFDB
556:Anyone who can not write should. ~ Harlan Ellison, #NFDB
557:A woman who knew her own worth, ~ Tricia O Malley, #NFDB
558:But I may be one who does not care ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
559:Don't kiss a man who hasn't shaved. ~ Kevin Kline, #NFDB
560:Fear is a friend who's misunderstood ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
561:—Find out who you were. Why ~ Jan Philipp Sendker, #NFDB
562:For everyone who wasn't saved. ~ Jessica Sorensen, #NFDB
563:For who is pleased with himself. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
564:Happy are all who take refuge in him. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
565:Happy are those who own nothing. ~ Roberto Bola o, #NFDB
566:Hate would destroy him who hated. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
567:He is able who think he is able. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
568:He laughs best who laughs least. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
569:He lives well who lives retired, and keeps ~ Ovid, #NFDB
570:He who angers you conquers you. ~ Elizabeth Kenny, #NFDB
571:He who believes needs no explanation. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
572:He who complains, sins. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
573:He who dies for virtue does not perish. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
574:He who keeps his cool best wins. ~ Norman Cousins, #NFDB
575:He who knows he has enough is rich. ~ Vicki Robin, #NFDB
576:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
577:He who made you bitter made you wise. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
578:I am a huge fan of 'Doctor Who.' ~ David Walliams, #NFDB
579:I am who I am and that's who I am ~ Nikolai Gogol, #NFDB
580:I am who I am in the eyes of God- ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
581:I am who I am; no more, no less. ~ Terry Goodkind, #NFDB
582:I count him lost, who is lost to shame. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
583:I don't know who Little Richard is. ~ Bar Refaeli, #NFDB
584:If I am not I, who will be? ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
585:I love people who make me laugh! ~ Audrey Hepburn, #NFDB
586:I'm a boy who doesn't want to grow up. ~ Ray Park, #NFDB
587:In violence we forget who we are. ~ Mary McCarthy, #NFDB
588:In violence, we forget who we are ~ Mary McCarthy, #NFDB
589:I speak my mind. That's who I am. ~ Jesse Ventura, #NFDB
590:It's easy to forget who you are. ~ Kendrick Lamar, #NFDB
591:Looking for who I am is who I am. ~ Tom Spanbauer, #NFDB
592:love same body who love you ~ Parragon Publishing, #NFDB
593:Man is the animal who laughs, ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
594:Men who fear demons see demons everywhere. ~ Brom, #NFDB
595:mummified body of a London man who ~ Jeremy Bates, #NFDB
596:Music is a reflection of who you are. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
597:Never trust a man who doesn't drink. ~ W C Fields, #NFDB
598:No man is a failure who has friends. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
599:No one conquers who doesn't fight. ~ Gabriel Biel, #NFDB
600:Not everyone who wanders is lost. ~ J R R Tolkien, #NFDB
601:No voting on who gets to be people. ~ N K Jemisin, #NFDB
602:pussies who rode small, gay horses ~ Sara Shepard, #NFDB
603:Says the boy who dreams of murder ~ Stylo Fantome, #NFDB
604:Sleep is for those who are broke ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
605:So some will be left who remember. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
606:The one who sings, prays twice. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
607:They are who we thought they were! ~ Dennis Green, #NFDB
608:They who have faith will go through. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
609:They who in folly or mere greed ~ Cecil Day Lewis, #NFDB
610:This is for you You know who you are ~ Megan Hart, #NFDB
611:Those who are content suffer no disgrace. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
612:Those who are made can be unmade. ~ Hilary Mantel, #NFDB
613:Those who follow are always behind. ~ A Y Jackson, #NFDB
614:Those who know when to halt are unharmed. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
615:Those who live are those who fight. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
616:To Harry Poter - the boy who lived! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
617:We don't get to decide who God is. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
618:We don’t get to decide who God is. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
619:What are men? Children who doubt. ~ Derek Walcott, #NFDB
620:Where you are is never who you are. ~ Mike Dooley, #NFDB
621:"Who am I?" The Self alone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
622:Who are you as a man? What defines you? ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
623:who bore him three children ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
624:Who can be born black and not exult! ~ Mari Evans, #NFDB
625:Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
626:Who couldn't believe there's a God? ~ Paul Walker, #NFDB
627:Who doesn’t want a love story? ~ Courtney Summers, #NFDB
628:Who gathers the withered rose? ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
629:who had lost her mother ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
630:Who is it can read a woman? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
631:Who Knew I'd Make Her So Blue. ~ Kathleen Glasgow, #NFDB
632:Who lit the fuse on your tampon? ~ Suzanne Wright, #NFDB
633:Who loses a day loses life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
634:Who overdosed?" Neil asked. "Seth. ~ Nora Sakavic, #NFDB
635:Who programmed this thing? ~ Kim Stanley Robinson, #NFDB
636:Who wears white to a knife fight? ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
637:who weighs about twelve stone. ~ Jerome K Jerome, #NFDB
638:Who would chew up a bunch of books? ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
639:Women who got married got screwed. ~ Kaya McLaren, #NFDB
640:Your body language shapes who you are ~ Amy Cuddy, #NFDB
641:You transform all who are touched by you. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
642:Accept who you are; and revel in it. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
643:A Jew is anyone who says he is. ~ David Ben Gurion, #NFDB
644:All hope abandon, ye who enter in! ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
645:...And you're the only one who knows. ~ Billy Joel, #NFDB
646:An ugly sight, a man who is afraid. ~ Jean Anouilh, #NFDB
647:Anyone who ain't family is opposition ~ Vinnie Paz, #NFDB
648:been through. She was a woman who ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
649:By the inquiry 'Who am I?'. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
650:Chef: Any cook who swears in French. ~ Henry Beard, #NFDB
651:Christ - an anarchist who succeeded. ~ Axel Munthe, #NFDB
652:Don't trust anyone who isn't angry. ~ John Trudell, #NFDB
653:For those who never give up ~ Christopher Andersen, #NFDB
654:Free is a man who has no desires. ~ Nizami Ganjavi, #NFDB
655:Great is the man who can overcome the ~ Confucius, #NFDB
656:Happy the man who can count his sufferings. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
657:He is able who thinks he is able. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
658:He listens well who takes notes. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
659:He lives well who is well hidden. ~ Rene Descartes, #NFDB
660:He speaks truly who speaks the shade. ~ Paul Celan, #NFDB
661:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, #NFDB
662:He who fears God fears no man. ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
663:He who has the gold makes the rules. ~ Tyler Perry, #NFDB
664:He who hesitates is usually fucked! ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
665:He who hugs too much, hugs badly! ~ Jeanne Calment, #NFDB
666:He who knows he has enough is rich. ~ Francine Jay, #NFDB
667:He who labours, prays. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
668:He who leaves the game wins it. ~ Nicolas Chamfort, #NFDB
669:He who love touches walks not in darkness. ~ Plato, #NFDB
670:He who plants a tree, plants a hope. ~ Lucy Larcom, #NFDB
671:He who plants kindness gathers love. ~ Saint Basil, #NFDB
672:He who reforms, God assists. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
673:He who seeks equity must do equity. ~ Joseph Story, #NFDB
674:He who shoots first laughs last. ~ Alexander Lebed, #NFDB
675:He who suffers, remembers. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
676:he who will not economize will agonize ~ Confucius, #NFDB
677:He who will not risk cannot win. ~ John Paul Jones, #NFDB
678:He who writes badly thinks badly ~ William Cobbett, #NFDB
679:I am a shipwrecked man who fears every sea. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
680:I am just a guy who plays drums. ~ Bill Kreutzmann, #NFDB
681:I don't like people who hide things. ~ Grace Jones, #NFDB
682:i envy the winds who still witness you ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
683:If I won't be myself, who will? ~ Alfred Hitchcock, #NFDB
684:If not us, who? If not now, when? ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
685:If you won't believe in yourself, who will? ~ Ishi, #NFDB
686:I know who I am and what I do. ~ Michael Hutchence, #NFDB
687:I'm a girl who eats, I love to eat. ~ Aubrey O Day, #NFDB
688:I'm a poet who can whine in meter ~ Sherman Alexie, #NFDB
689:I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
690:I'm the bitch who makes you a man. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
691:I respect people who hate me honestly. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
692:Kellan Walsh... who the hell are you? ~ Ella James, #NFDB
693:Leaders are those who empower others. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
694:Lies. Mab cannot change who you are. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
695:Loki, who put the con in conniving. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
696:Make sense who may. I switch off. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
697:Mr. Davis, 66, who is known as Sluggo, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
698:Not all those who wander are lost. ~ J R R Tolkien, #NFDB
699:One who has hope lives differently. ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
700:Only the man who says no is free ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
701:our time loitering with someone who ~ Dana Cameron, #NFDB
702:People like people who like them. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
703:People who don't read are brutes. ~ Eug ne Ionesco, #NFDB
704:People who love work, love life. ~ Louise Fitzhugh, #NFDB
705:Prayer changes the person who prays. ~ Chris Fabry, #NFDB
706:St. Ash – who knew? (Gallagher) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
707:The man who flies shall fight again. ~ Demosthenes, #NFDB
708:The woman who died night after night ~ Octavio Paz, #NFDB
709:They who in trouble untroubled are ~ Thiruvalluvar, #NFDB
710:Those who stay where they are will endure. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
711:To Harry Potter - the boy who lived! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
712:To Harry Potter — the boy who lived! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
713:Truth often harms the one who digs it up. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
714:Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
715:War is sweet to those who never tried it. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
716:Was none who would be foremost ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
717:We are who we are. There’s no changing ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
718:We cannot hate those who we despise. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
719:We're all who we are endlessly. ~ Marlena De Blasi, #NFDB
720:We're all who we are endlessly. ~ Marlena de Blasi, #NFDB
721:What is a rebel? A man who says no. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
722:What we do flows from who we are. ~ Charles Colson, #NFDB
723:Where we are is vital to who we are. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
724:Who ain’t a slave? Tell me that. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
725:Who am I, and when did I gain a pound? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
726:Who are you and why are you my cat? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
727:Who are YOU? said the Caterpillar. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
728:Who can know the heart of a man? ~ Alice McDermott, #NFDB
729:Who ever said the world was fair ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
730:who had fought for the Republic. ~ Phyllis T Smith, #NFDB
731:Who has never killed an hour? ~ Mark Z Danielewski, #NFDB
732:Who hasn't danced in their underwear? ~ Tom Cruise, #NFDB
733:Who has started upon his quest ~ Dag Hammarskjold, #NFDB
734:Who hath not served can not command. ~ John Florio, #NFDB
735:Who in the hot hunk of sex are you? ~ Harper Sloan, #NFDB
736:Who knows what the future holds. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
737:Who knows where the road may take us ~ Syrie James, #NFDB
738:Who needs action when you got words? ~ Kurt Cobain, #NFDB
739:Who prates of war or want after his wine? ~ Horace, #NFDB
740:Who really needs a new album from me? ~ Elton John, #NFDB
741:Who said we were owed happiness? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
742:Who says meritocracy says oligarchy. ~ Chris Hayes, #NFDB
743:Who scorns his own life is lord of yours. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
744:Who sings of all of Love's eternity ~ Jon Anderson, #NFDB
745:Who the fuck are you?” Chandler demanded. ~ J Lynn, #NFDB
746:Who will guard against the guardians? I ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
747:Who will observe the observers? ~ Arthur Eddington, #NFDB
748:Who would ever understand me? ~ Karen Marie Moning, #NFDB
749:Who would you be without your story? ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
750:Why should he who is scared be careful? ~ Menander, #NFDB
751:Abandon hope, all ye who enter here ~ Andrea Cremer, #NFDB
752:A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere. ~ Martial, #NFDB
753:Anyone who keeps learning stays young. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
754:Apathy's a problem but who cares? ~ Michael Parenti, #NFDB
755:At least I know who I am. What I want, ~ Celeste Ng, #NFDB
756:At least I know who I am. What I want. ~ Celeste Ng, #NFDB
757:A woman who'd lost her first son ~ Michael S Harper, #NFDB
758:Be careful who you invite into your soul. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
759:Beware the god who cannot laugh. ~ Alain de Benoist, #NFDB
760:Be who you are and be that well. ~ Francis de Sales, #NFDB
761:Did he who made the lamb make thee? ~ William Blake, #NFDB
762:Every Wolverine fan knows who that is. ~ Cassie Mae, #NFDB
763:Finding is reserved for those who reach. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
764:first who... then what” start-up. ~ James C Collins, #NFDB
765:forsaken him. The priests who serve the ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
766:friend of mine who was turned down ~ Charles Stross, #NFDB
767:Good things come to those who wait, ~ Darius Foroux, #NFDB
768:Good things happen to those who hustle. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
769:Good things happen to those who hustle. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
770:Hearts and flowers—that's not who I am. ~ E L James, #NFDB
771:He buries gold who hides the truth.
~ Pythagoras,#NFDB
772:He moves fastest who moves alone. ~ Milton Friedman, #NFDB
773:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, #NFDB
774:He who does not work shall not eat ~ Vladimir Lenin, #NFDB
775:He who fails to plan, plans to fail. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
776:He who has many friends has no friends. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
777:He who is grateful doesn't suffer. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
778:He who is not actively kind is cruel! ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
779:He who is satisfied with his lot is rich; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
780:He who is silent is seen to consent. ~ Claire North, #NFDB
781:He who learns death unlearns slavery. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
782:He who says o'er much I love not is in love. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
783:He who spares the wicked injures the good. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
784:He who talks much cannot talk well. ~ Carlo Goldoni, #NFDB
785:He who thinks little errs much. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
786:He who thinks little errs much… ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
787:He who wants peace must prepare for war. ~ Claudius, #NFDB
788:He who weighs his burdens, can bear them. ~ Martial, #NFDB
789:He who wrongs one threatens many. ~ Publilius Syrus, #NFDB
790:He worships God who knows him. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
791:I am a person who sticks to her word. ~ Steffi Graf, #NFDB
792:I don't care who anybody sleeps with. ~ Betty White, #NFDB
793:I flee who chases me and chase who flees me. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
794:I have a husband who adores me. ~ Elizabeth Edwards, #NFDB
795:I…I belong to those who care about me. ~ Kaori Yuki, #NFDB
796:I like people who like Plato. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
797:I'm an actor who loves doing comedy. ~ Martin Short, #NFDB
798:I'm a singer who moves like a dancer. ~ Bobby Darin, #NFDB
799:I'm not someone who plays hard to get. ~ Heidi Klum, #NFDB
800:I think men who can cry are strong men ~ James Frey, #NFDB
801:It is the tale, not he who tells it. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
802:It was my fans who made me a star. ~ Marilyn Monroe, #NFDB
803:Just be comfortable with who you are. ~ Chris Pratt, #NFDB
804:Kids hate anyone who is different. ~ Tamsin Egerton, #NFDB
805:let all who take refuge in you be glad; ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
806:Life is beautiful. He who reads that ~ John Ashbery, #NFDB
807:Life rewards those who deserve it. ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
808:Look who’s here. My adoring girlfriend. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
809:Look your best - who said love is blind? ~ Mae West, #NFDB
810:Man, who don't like spaghetti? ~ Rodney Dangerfield, #NFDB
811:Music is not what I do, it is who I am. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
812:My mother, who hates thunderstorms, ~ Philip Larkin, #NFDB
813:None love, but they who wish to love. ~ Jean Racine, #NFDB
814:No one remembers who came in second. ~ Walter Hagen, #NFDB
815:Normal is boring. Who wants that? ~ Sarah Mlynowski, #NFDB
816:Not all those who wander are lost. ~ Helena Hunting, #NFDB
817:Of course, I love you for who you are. ~ Kaori Yuki, #NFDB
818:OK, so you're not perfect. Who is? ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
819:Olivia is a girl who sees everything. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
820:One cannot be brave who has no fear ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
821:One has no friend who has many friends. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
822:Only those who seek shall find.” I ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
823:Own who you are" -Micheal Christ ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
824:Patience comes to those who wait. ~ Shannon Wheeler, #NFDB
825:People are never who they seem to be ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
826:People who plead with you for favours ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
827:PRO31.10 Who can find a virtuous woman? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
828:Savage is he who saves himself. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
829:Screwdrivers, women who screw drivers. ~ Paige Toon, #NFDB
830:She grieves sincerely who grieves unseen. ~ Martial, #NFDB
831:She who only finds her self-esteem ~ Joanna Baillie, #NFDB
832:She who resists as though she would not win, ~ Ovid, #NFDB
833:Show your thoughts who's boss. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu, #NFDB
834:smart one, the one who needed more ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
835:So he who strongly feels, behaves. ~ Marianne Moore, #NFDB
836:Stories happen to those who tell them. ~ Thucydides, #NFDB
837:The art of knowing is knowing who to ignore. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
838:The Fae who dwell in the Outlands. ~ Karpov Kinrade, #NFDB
839:The one who is not being born is dying. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
840:The Real Beloved is that one who is Unique, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
841:there are people who have lost huge ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
842:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
843:They rise highest who lift as they go. ~ Kevin Hall, #NFDB
844:They sin who tell us Love can die: ~ Robert Southey, #NFDB
845:This is who I am.", FADE by Kailin Gow ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
846:Those who betray me do it only once. ~ Kresley Cole, #NFDB
847:Those who betray me only do so once. ~ Kresley Cole, #NFDB
848:Those who covet much suffer from the want. ~ Horace, #NFDB
849:Those who give up cannot gain victory. ~ Lee Min ho, #NFDB
850:Those who live, live off the dead. ~ Antonin Artaud, #NFDB
851:Those who praise themselves do not prevail. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
852:Those who prepare for war get it. ~ Winifred Holtby, #NFDB
853:To those who are good (to me), I am good; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
854:Where you are is vital to who you are ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
855:Who am I? this or the other? ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
856:Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel? ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
857:Who contains himself goes seldom wrong. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
858:Who did you lose?” I asked gently. ~ Sloane Kennedy, #NFDB
859:Who do you know who's lost a buttock? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
860:Who ever said the world was fair? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
861:Who hastens a glutton choakes him. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
862:Who hath no head, needes no heart. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
863:Who is one's first love? Who indeed. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
864:Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
865:Who knew freckles could be so sexy? ~ Jay Crownover, #NFDB
866:Who knows, Walter? Maybe I can. ~ Chris Grabenstein, #NFDB
867:Who lies for you will lie against you. ~ John Locke, #NFDB
868:Who rules our symbols, rules us. ~ Alfred Korzybski, #NFDB
869:Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
870:Who’s Marilyn Monroe?” “Sex! ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
871:Who then will explain the explanation? ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
872:Who wants to survive without truth? ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
873:Who will guard us against the guardians? ~ Susan Ee, #NFDB
874:Who you are authentically is alright. ~ Laverne Cox, #NFDB
875:Who you are shapes how you are loved. ~ Jane Smiley, #NFDB
876:woman who had not told him or anybody ~ Colm T ib n, #NFDB
877:14And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
878:15He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
879:Abandon every hope, you who enter. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
880:All Good Things Comes To He Who Waits ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
881:And really, I think I like who I'm becoming. ~ Drake, #NFDB
882:Any who stand in my way shall be cut down! ~ Cao Cao, #NFDB
883:A person’s job is not who they are. ~ Michelle Gable, #NFDB
884:Beware of the man who has no enemies. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
885:Be who you are in every situation. ~ Michael Johnson, #NFDB
886:Be who you really areand go the whole way. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
887:both of us. “Who can keep track? ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
888:Boys who dance are genetic volcanoes. ~ Andrew Smith, #NFDB
889:coming from the Iraqis, who were trying ~ Chris Kyle, #NFDB
890:Criticism comes to those who stand out. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
891:Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. ~ Greg Koukl, #NFDB
892:Everything comes to those who wait. ~ Sarah Alderson, #NFDB
893:Evil to him who evil thinks. ~ Edward III of England, #NFDB
894:Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
895:For who so firm that cannot be seduced? ~ John Green, #NFDB
896:God save us from people who mean well. ~ Vikram Seth, #NFDB
897:He sleeps fastest who sleeps alone. ~ Richard Avedon, #NFDB
898:he travels fastest who travels alone. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
899:He who allows oppression shares the crime. ~ Erasmus, #NFDB
900:He who chases two rabbits, catches none. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
901:He who eats my bread does my will. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
902:He who has a partner has a master. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
903:He who hates himself is not humble. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
904:He who hesitates is sometimes saved. ~ James Thurber, #NFDB
905:He who hesitates is sometimes wise. ~ Malcolm Forbes, #NFDB
906:He who hesitates, meditates horizontally ~ Ed Parker, #NFDB
907:He who is afraid is half beaten. ~ Alexander Suvorov, #NFDB
908:He who limps is still walking. ~ Stanis aw Jerzy Lec, #NFDB
909:He who limps is still walking. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, #NFDB
910:He who prays most receives most. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
911:He who says collage says the irrational. ~ Max Ernst, #NFDB
912:He who sins easily, sins less. The very power ~ Ovid, #NFDB
913:He who sows courtesy reaps friendship. ~ Saint Basil, #NFDB
914:He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
915:Historians are gossips who tease the dead ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
916:I am a man who does not exist for others. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
917:I am an educator who thinks globally. ~ Paulo Freire, #NFDB
918:If God be for us, who can be against us? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
919:If God is for us, who can be against us? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
920:I know who didn’t kill her.” “Don’t ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
921:I like people who push the envelope. ~ Norman Reedus, #NFDB
922:I'm just someone who observes a lot. ~ Nadine Labaki, #NFDB
923:I'm not even sure who my audience is. ~ Tom Verlaine, #NFDB
924:I never met a writer who wasn't lazy. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
925:Insane things come to those who wait. ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
926:It hurts being the one who loves more ~ Aimee Carter, #NFDB
927:It is always the novice who exaggerates. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
928:It is not the critic who counts ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
929:It's not how you die. It's who you die. ~ John Green, #NFDB
930:It's not the critic who counts. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
931:I was the girl who had hair like blood. ~ Ivy Devlin, #NFDB
932:Katniss, the girl who was on fire! ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
933:Katniss, the girl who was on fire. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
934:Know or listen to those who know. ~ Baltasar Gracian, #NFDB
935:Life helps those who help themselves. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
936:Life is too short not to be who you are ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
937:Listen, my friend. He who loves understands. ~ Kabir, #NFDB
938:Love looks around to see who is in need ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
939:Love perseveres. It's men who change. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
940:love you for who you are … inside. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
941:Men who ape the saint and play the sinner. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
942:Money can’t change who we are. All ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
943:Most people know who believes in them. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
944:next to Wainwright, who was already ~ Jeffrey Archer, #NFDB
945:No man can be just who is not free. ~ Woodrow Wilson, #NFDB
946:None but those who work are entitled to eat. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
947:None so blind as those who won't see. ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
948:No one controls who we turn into but us. ~ Amy Engel, #NFDB
949:No one is dumb who is curious. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
950:One cannot be brave who has no fear. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
951:people just are who they are, ~ J Randy Taraborrelli, #NFDB
952:People who don't count won't count. ~ Anatole France, #NFDB
953:Protect those who protect you. ~ Evangelos Venizelos, #NFDB
954:She who has never lov'd, has never liv'd. ~ John Gay, #NFDB
955:That, who keeps his mouth, keeps his Soul. ~ Solomon, #NFDB
956:The explorer is the person who is lost. ~ Tim Cahill, #NFDB
957:The God who made New Hampshire ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
958:The man who was only a silhouette. She ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
959:The one who knows no hope knows no despair. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
960:The person who experiences most wins. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
961:These days you can't see who's in cahoots, ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
962:They who prosper take on airs of vanity. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
963:this girl who was an idea that I loved. ~ John Green, #NFDB
964:[T]hose who are afraid can stay at home. ~ Dan Jones, #NFDB
965:Those who are fear'd, are hated. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
966:Those who cannot begin do not finish. ~ Robert Henri, #NFDB
967:Those who fled will fight another time. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
968:Those who write clearly have readers. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
969:To he who knocks, the door will open. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
970:To those who will see, the world waits. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
971:We can’t help who we love, Maverick,” he ~ K L Kreig, #NFDB
972:WE SHALL SEE
WHO KNOWS
HOW TO BE ~ Gary Snyder,#NFDB
973:What is a rebel? The one who says No. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
974:What we do flows from who we are. ~ Charles W Colson, #NFDB
975:What we find changes who we become. ~ Peter Morville, #NFDB
976:Who am I to tamper with a masterpiece? ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
977:Who are my influences? Everybody. ~ Cameron Esposito, #NFDB
978:Whoa, who peed in your Cheerios? ~ Becca Fitzpatrick, #NFDB
979:Who can judge another man's suffering? ~ Janet Fitch, #NFDB
980:Who cares what you are just enjoy it! ~ Kim Cattrall, #NFDB
981:Who dreams so much, forgets to live ~ Yasmina Khadra, #NFDB
982:Who has self-confidence will lead the rest. ~ Horace, #NFDB
983:Who hates the Jews more than the Jew? ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
984:Who hearkens to the gods, the gods give ear. ~ Homer, #NFDB
985:Who helped mes see what I could not. ~ Cameron Dokey, #NFDB
986:Who is really in charge of this planet? ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
987:Who love too much, hate in the like extreme. ~ Homer, #NFDB
988:Who needs magic when you look this good ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
989:Who pleases one against his will. ~ William Congreve, #NFDB
990:"Who's Heinz and what's an accordion?" ~ D J MacHale, #NFDB
991:Who sows fear, reaps weapons. ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt, #NFDB
992:Who we are now is all that really matters. ~ Amy Joy, #NFDB
993:Who will you choose to have your back? ~ Bill Jensen, #NFDB
994:Who writes history? I thought. I do. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
995:Women who have power are always feared. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
996:You, boy, who owe everything to a name ~ Mark Antony, #NFDB
997:You can't help who you love, can you? ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
998:You got to be who you are when you are. ~ Snoop Dogg, #NFDB
999:You have to be honest about who you are. ~ Ray Lewis, #NFDB
1000:after we moved up North. “Who’s ~ Michelle Harrison, #NFDB
1001:A ghost who bleeds is less dangerous! ~ Gaston Leroux, #NFDB
1002:All that really matters is who you love. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
1003:All who ever lived. All who ever died. ~ David Guymer, #NFDB
1004:And you, whiner, who wastes your time ~ W D Snodgrass, #NFDB
1005:Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig. ~ Leon Bloy, #NFDB
1006:Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig. ~ L on Bloy, #NFDB
1007:Any man who reads is a fine one. ~ Karen Marie Moning, #NFDB
1008:Before you think good or evil, who are you? ~ Huineng, #NFDB
1009:Behold, we count them happy who endure. ~ James V. 11, #NFDB
1010:Besides, who makes all these silly rules? ~ H L Burke, #NFDB
1011:Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1012:by Matt Jensen, who had himself ~ William W Johnstone, #NFDB
1013:Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1014:Chance favors those who are prepared. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
1015:CHAPTER XIX ‘WHO VALUED THE GEESE? ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1016:Cultivate those who can teach you. ~ Baltasar Gracian, #NFDB
1017:Dignity is for people who have options. We ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
1018:Dip him in the river who loves water. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1019:For all of those who wanna profile and pose ~ Prodigy, #NFDB
1020:For the ones who fight their way forward ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
1021:Girls are impressed by boys who can cook. ~ Bart King, #NFDB
1022:Good things come to those who initiate. ~ Susan RoAne, #NFDB
1023:Happy is he who can give himself up. ~ Naguib Mahfouz, #NFDB
1024:Happy is the man who is nothing. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
1025:Heaven is for those who think of it. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
1026:He hath no leisure who useth it not. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1027:He listens well who takes notes.
~ Dante Alighieri,#NFDB
1028:he wasn’t who I thought he was. ~ Denise Grover Swank, #NFDB
1029:He who can believe himself well, will be well. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1030:He who controls the past controls the future. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1031:He who eats my bread, does my will. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1032:He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1033:He who gives early gives twice. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
1034:He who is everywhere is nowhere. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1035:He who poses as a fool is not a fool. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
1036:he who survives writes the rules. ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
1037:I am who I am, but I am not a bully. ~ Chris Christie, #NFDB
1038:I am who I am. I'm going to speak my mind. ~ Ken Buck, #NFDB
1039:If not now then when, if not me then who? ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
1040:If not us, who? And if not now, when? ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
1041:If not you, who? If not now, when? ~ Hillel the Elder, #NFDB
1042:I hate a man who skins the land. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
1043:I identify who I am by who I am. ~ Maggie Wilderotter, #NFDB
1044:I like a kid who holds nothing back. ~ Emmy Laybourne, #NFDB
1045:I like people who can do things ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1046:I love a guy who can make me laugh. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
1047:I'm a decent man who exports flowers. ~ Pablo Escobar, #NFDB
1048:I mean, who passes out from an orgasm? ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
1049:It is good people who make good places. ~ Anna Sewell, #NFDB
1050:It's nice to play someone who is naive. ~ Emily Blunt, #NFDB
1051:It's not God who doesn't care, it's us ~ Frank Warren, #NFDB
1052:It's that big guy who's the government. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1053:I’ve never known a man who loved me. ~ Sufjan Stevens, #NFDB
1054:I've realized that Evanescence is who I am. ~ Amy Lee, #NFDB
1055:I want a girlfriend who can eat like me ~ Niall Horan, #NFDB
1056:Let him who has enough ask for nothing more. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1057:Listen, my friend. He who loves understands. ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1058:Love is who we are without our stories. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
1059:Never underestimate those who you scar. ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1060:Nobody likes the man who brings bad news. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1061:No man fails who does his best. ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
1062:None meets harm who knows his capacity. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
1063:One can not be brave who has no fear. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1064:One who's naked shouldn't judge apparel, ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
1065:on hers; And finally, Andy Cahill, who ~ Tara Dairman, #NFDB
1066:only our choices show who we really are ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1067:People who behave rarely make history. ~ Josh Linkner, #NFDB
1068:People who don't think shouldn't talk ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
1069:People who read are people who dream. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
1070:People who solve problems are happier. ~ Jim McKelvey, #NFDB
1071:Poor is the man who desires a lot ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
1072:Remember, people make you who you are. ~ Eddie Levert, #NFDB
1073:self-actualizers, who are dramatically ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
1074:She's the Indian who lives in my attic. ~ Tracy Letts, #NFDB
1075:someone who is skilled at hiding secrets. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1076:So perish all who do the like again. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
1077:Stay close to people who feel like sunshine ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1078:That man is strongest who stands alone! ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
1079:That's who I want to be when I grow up. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1080:The best of seers is he who guesses well. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1081:The man who wins is the average man, ~ Conrad Hilton, #NFDB
1082:The one who rules like the mother lasts long. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1083:The one who teaches is the giver of eyes. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1084:The only one who can beat me is me. ~ Michael Johnson, #NFDB
1085:They also serve, who only stand and wait. ~ Emma Cole, #NFDB
1086:They know enough who know how to learn. ~ Henry Adams, #NFDB
1087:They send a person who can never stay. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1088:Those who are quiet will always cause riots. ~ Dr Dre, #NFDB
1089:Those who stand on their toes are not steady. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1090:To him who is afraid, everything rustles. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1091:To one who knocks, the door will open. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1092:We served the one who served us.’ He ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1093:Who are a little wise the best fools be. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
1094:Who brings a picnic to a break-in? ~ Stephanie Tromly, #NFDB
1095:who
is invisible enough
to see you ~ Paul Celan,#NFDB
1096:Who can be patient in extremes? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1097:Who can do anything after Beethoven? ~ Franz Schubert, #NFDB
1098:Who cares?' said Judy, who didn't care. ~ Grace Paley, #NFDB
1099:Who covets more is evermore a slave. ~ Robert Herrick, #NFDB
1100:Who has words at the right moment? ~ Charlotte Bronte, #NFDB
1101:Who I am really keeps surprising me. ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
1102:Who I really am keeps surprising me. ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
1103:Who keeps putting alcohol in my alcohol? ~ Tara Sivec, #NFDB
1104:Who knows where the road will lead us ~ Frank Sinatra, #NFDB
1105:Who must do the harsh things? He who can. ~ Trevanian, #NFDB
1106:Who needed a man when they had a dog? ~ Toni Anderson, #NFDB
1107:Who needs magic when you look this good? ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
1108:Who picks your clothes - Stevie Wonder? ~ Don Rickles, #NFDB
1109:Who's driving this car, Stevie Wonder? ~ Bruce Willis, #NFDB
1110:Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I don't. ~ Cole Porter, #NFDB
1111:Who was he if not for what he could do? ~ Jason Letts, #NFDB
1112:Who? What's wrong?" Daniel stammered. ~ Robin Parrish, #NFDB
1113:Who works for glory misses oft the goal; ~ Kenyon Cox, #NFDB
1114:Wisest is he who knows what he does not know. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1115:Woe and death to all who resist my will! ~ Wilhelm II, #NFDB
1116:You adapt to who you're photographing. ~ David Bailey, #NFDB
1117:You just remember who the enemy is, ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1118:You're a siren who doesn't need to sing. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1119:You’re a siren who doesn’t need to sing. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1120:Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1121:Actually, who are you not to be? ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1122:a ghost is someone who hasn't made it. ~ Sylvia Browne, #NFDB
1123:A hero is a man who does what he can. ~ Romain Rolland, #NFDB
1124:A job is not just a job. It’s who you are. ~ Jude Law, #NFDB
1125:A kid who moves is a kid who learns. ~ Richard Simmons, #NFDB
1126:All hope abandon, ye who enter here! ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1127:All hope abandon, ye who enter here. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1128:All things come to him who mates. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
1129:A man who lies about beer makes enemies ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1130:A man who won't listen can't hear. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
1131:Anyone who's lived has lost somebody. ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
1132:Anyone who takes drugs should be hammered. ~ Andy Gray, #NFDB
1133:anyone who wants to make a difference can. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1134:A person who can, within a year, solve x ~ Brahmagupta, #NFDB
1135:Before you think good or evil, who are you? ~ Huineng, #NFDB
1136:Be strong, believe in who you are; ~ Melissa Etheridge, #NFDB
1137:Beware the person who is on a hot streak. ~ James Cook, #NFDB
1138:Be who you are. / Give what you have. ~ Rose Ausl nder, #NFDB
1139:Be who you like as long as you mean it. ~ Alan Cumming, #NFDB
1140:Blessed is the one who considers the poor! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1141:CHAPTER VI—WHO GUARDED HIS HOUSE FOR HIM ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1142:Decisions are made by those who show up ~ Aaron Sorkin, #NFDB
1143:Delay is ever fatal to those who are prepared. ~ Lucan, #NFDB
1144:don't trust somebody who can't trust you ~ Jacob Grimm, #NFDB
1145:Everyone who is not happy must be shot. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
1146:Extraordinary women who love and heal. ~ Jacki Delecki, #NFDB
1147:Fate is a fickle bitch who dotes on irony. ~ Glen Cook, #NFDB
1148:Fate punishes those who try to cheat it. ~ Julie Berry, #NFDB
1149:Find people who will make you better. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
1150:For nobody is curious, who isn't malevolent. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1151:Fuck it. I am who I am. Nobody's perfect. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
1152:God helps those who help themselves. ~ Algernon Sidney, #NFDB
1153:God helps those who help themselves. ~ Charlotte Rogan, #NFDB
1154:Go for someone who is proud to have you. ~ Frank Ocean, #NFDB
1155:Good things come to those who wait.” I ~ Jennifer Foor, #NFDB
1156:He alone may chastise who loves. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
1157:He is not always at ease who laughs. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1158:Help only comes to those who ask for it. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1159:He who acts, spoils; he who grasps, lets slip. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1160:HE WHO ACTS UNJUSTLY ACTS IMPIOUSLY. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1161:He who conquers self conquers all. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1162:He who doesn’t fear death dies only once, ~ John Green, #NFDB
1163:He who fears fate lives like a coward ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
1164:[H]e who fears to lose will never win. ~ David Gemmell, #NFDB
1165:He who goes unenvied shall not be admired. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
1166:He who has far to ride spares his horse. ~ Jean Racine, #NFDB
1167:He who is attached to things will suffer much. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1168:He who is full of joy is full of love. ~ Baal Shem Tov, #NFDB
1169:He who loves men, loves their joy ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1170:He who seeks truth should be of no country. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1171:He who will travel far spares his steed. ~ Jean Racine, #NFDB
1172:He who would not be idle, let him fall in love. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1173:Hounds follow those who feed them. ~ Otto von Bismarck, #NFDB
1174:I am a phoenix who runs after arsonists. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
1175:i am a trickster who doesn't know solitude ~ Tite Kubo, #NFDB
1176:I am who I am today because of my mother. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
1177:I don't trust anybody who didn't inhale. ~ Peter Fonda, #NFDB
1178:I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1179:I'd paralyze anyone who wanted to hurt me. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1180:If God be for us, who can be against us? ~ Romans 8:31, #NFDB
1181:If I abuse myself daily, who can I love? ~ Big K R I T, #NFDB
1182:If they don’t like you who the fuck cares. ~ Sara Quin, #NFDB
1183:if you’re not your body, who are you? ~ Tony Bertauski, #NFDB
1184:I hate and I love, and who can tell me why? ~ Catullus, #NFDB
1185:I have a weakness for tough guys who read. ~ Lisa Lutz, #NFDB
1186:I have hardly any friends who aren't gay ~ Tracey Emin, #NFDB
1187:I know who the demon thief is - it's me! ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
1188:I like men who are more in their heads. ~ Kelli Garner, #NFDB
1189:I love who I am. I love what I've become. ~ Bernie Mac, #NFDB
1190:I love you." Who said that? Shit! It was me. ~ M Mabie, #NFDB
1191:I'm a woman who wants her chocolate. ~ Jessica Simpson, #NFDB
1192:I'm a writer who just happens to draw. ~ Matt Groening, #NFDB
1193:I'm just a kid from Bronx who got lucky. ~ Ace Frehley, #NFDB
1194:I'm just a newsboy who met a President. ~ David Powers, #NFDB
1195:I'm like a child who belongs to nobody. ~ Lana Del Rey, #NFDB
1196:I'm the one who doesn't hesitate to give. ~ Linnea May, #NFDB
1197:I pity the foo who kills all the Jews. ~ Ryan Boudinot, #NFDB
1198:It isn't just children who need heros. ~ Tamora Pierce, #NFDB
1199:It is the poor man who'll ever count his flock. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1200:I trust no one who hasn’t time for music. ~ Jack White, #NFDB
1201:It's fun to play people who are flawed. ~ Brad Garrett, #NFDB
1202:It's not the how, Maddy, It's the Who. ~ Denise Hunter, #NFDB
1203:It's our flaws who make us who we are. ~ Doug Stanhope, #NFDB
1204:It's the cynics who never get married. ~ Jay McInerney, #NFDB
1205:It's who I am I don't have to try hard ~ Avril Lavigne, #NFDB
1206:Its who you know and who can help you. ~ Jeffrey Combs, #NFDB
1207:I who all the Winter through, ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1208:...Jezebel the nun, who violently knits... ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
1209:Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1210:Love doesn't care who your parents are. ~ Rumer Willis, #NFDB
1211:Love only the people who deserve you. ~ Christian M rk, #NFDB
1212:Necessity, who is the mother of our invention. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1213:Nothing is easy, but who wants nothing? ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1214:Of course I have nightmares-Who doesn't? ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
1215:Of him who has chosen his destiny, ~ Dag Hammarskjold, #NFDB
1216:Om helps those who help one another. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1217:Or a hug from someone who loved them. ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
1218:People who can write a book usually do. ~ Jilly Cooper, #NFDB
1219:People who don't think shouldn't talk. ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
1220:People who know better do better. If ~ Russell Simmons, #NFDB
1221:Power wears out those who do not have it. ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
1222:saints are just sinners who keep trying ~ J T Lawrence, #NFDB
1223:Say what you believe and see who follows. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1224:Seriously, who has monogrammed pajamas? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1225:She became who she had been meant to be ~ Meg Wolitzer, #NFDB
1226:So here is a client who has just looked ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
1227:Tears for the mourners who are left behind ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
1228:that Rob, who had turned seven two months ~ Jeff Hobbs, #NFDB
1229:The best things come to those who wait. ~ Marilyn Grey, #NFDB
1230:The dead speak to those who listen. ~ Kerri Maniscalco, #NFDB
1231:The Lord who gave us Earth and Heaven ~ John Masefield, #NFDB
1232:The man who acts the least, upbraids the most. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1233:The man who does ill, ill must suffer too. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
1234:The man who fears war and squats opposing ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
1235:The man who seeks revenge digs two graves. ~ Ken Kesey, #NFDB
1236:The man who thinks with Horace thinks divine. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1237:The only people who never hurt are dead. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
1238:The real question is who will innovate. ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
1239:There were few who preferred honor to money. ~ Sallust, #NFDB
1240:The winner is just the loser who never gave up! ~ Mika, #NFDB
1241:The wolf who sings alone is not happy. ~ Tamora Pierce, #NFDB
1242:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Zen proverb, #NFDB
1243:They also serve who only stand and wait. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1244:They never fail who die in a great cause. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
1245:They think too little who talk too much. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1246:Those who can bear all can dare all. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
1247:Those who don't want to change, let them sleep. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1248:Those who remain silent are responsible. ~ Edith Stein, #NFDB
1249:Travel is for those who cannot feel. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1250:Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest.[15] ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1251:We are who we are because of who we were ~ Vanilla Ice, #NFDB
1252:We're prisioners of... things.Of who we are. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1253:We speak, but it is God who teaches. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1254:What's a punk band? Hey, who's got a beer? ~ Bon Scott, #NFDB
1255:What you were is forever who you are. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
1256:Who can I turn to? Who can I trust? ~ Rickie Lee Jones, #NFDB
1257:Who can sleep with you in the world? ~ Caroline Kepnes, #NFDB
1258:Who else but utopians could make utopia? ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
1259:Who else speaks for the Family of Man? ~ Carl Sandburg, #NFDB
1260:Who has more leisure than a worm? ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1261:Who hath seen the Phantom Ship, ~ Albert Pinkham Ryder, #NFDB
1262:Who knew an elf queen could be so vicious! ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1263:Who made you the center of the universe? ~ Laura Mvula, #NFDB
1264:Who runs in circles never gets far. ~ Thornton Burgess, #NFDB
1265:who spends so much time worrying about ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
1266:Who was he if not destined for fame? ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
1267:Who would you be without your excuses? ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
1268:Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
1269:Women! Who knew how their minds worked? ~ Graham Parke, #NFDB
1270:wouldn’t know. When my grandmother, who we ~ S M Reine, #NFDB
1271:Write me as one who loves his fellow men. ~ Leigh Hunt, #NFDB
1272:You can’t help who you fall in love with. ~ E L Montes, #NFDB
1273:you don’t even know who You-Know-Who is! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1274:You is who you is, so get used to it. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
1275:You transform all those who are touched by You. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1276:Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin. ~ Edward Gorey, #NFDB
1277:A critic is a man who expects miracles. ~ James Gibbons, #NFDB
1278:Actors are just soldiers who follow commands. ~ Om Puri, #NFDB
1279:A father is a man who fails every day. ~ Michael Chabon, #NFDB
1280:All you need to do is know who you are. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1281:A man who cheats, cheats only himself. ~ Yasmina Khadra, #NFDB
1282:A man who lies about beer makes enemies. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1283:And Modesty, who, when she goes, ~ Walter Savage Landor, #NFDB
1284:And who am I to blow against the wind? ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1285:Anybody who's mad should run for something. ~ Van Jones, #NFDB
1286:Any man who was a man could travel alone. ~ Jack London, #NFDB
1287:Anyone who believes in magic is a fool. ~ Harry Houdini, #NFDB
1288:A passionate traveler who has visited six ~ Marti Green, #NFDB
1289:A poet is a musician who can't sing. ~ Patrick Rothfuss, #NFDB
1290:Are you the man who reads phone books? ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
1291:Assaile who will, the valiant attends. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1292:A woman who acts like a fool is a fool. ~ Arthur Golden, #NFDB
1293:A woman who laughs is a woman conquered. ~ Oleg Cassini, #NFDB
1294:"Be who you really are and go the whole way." ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1295:Be who you wanna be! Always radiate love! ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
1296:Blessed is he who will not be offended ~ Neal A Maxwell, #NFDB
1297:But who, alas! can love, and then be wise? ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
1298:CUSTOMERS TRUST A GUIDE WHO HAS A PLAN. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
1299:Day by day, what you do is who you become. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1300:Decisions are made by those who show up. ~ Aaron Sorkin, #NFDB
1301:Doors are for those who lack enemies. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1302:Everybody who's anybody longs to be a tree. ~ Rita Dove, #NFDB
1303:Everyone who is not happy must be shot. ~ John le Carre, #NFDB
1304:Everyone who supports Israel is a Zionist. ~ Tom Paulin, #NFDB
1305:Everything is possible for him who believes ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1306:Everything is possible for one who believes ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1307:Factions are blind men who aim correctly. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1308:For only he who is alive is in the right. ~ Max Stirner, #NFDB
1309:For the ones who dream of stranger worlds. ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
1310:For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1311:Give your weakness to one who helps. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
1312:God hates those who praise themselves. ~ Pope Clement I, #NFDB
1313:God helps those who have no-cut contracts. ~ Aesop Rock, #NFDB
1314:Hatred destroys the person who hates. ~ James A Baldwin, #NFDB
1315:He hears but half who hears one party only. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
1316:He is cured by faith who is sick of fate. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1317:He laughs best who laughs at the end. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1318:He only is rich who owns the day. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1319:Her idea of who's worth what ain't mine. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
1320:He who does not desire power is fit to hold it. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1321:He who gains time gains everything. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
1322:He who hides his madman dies voiceless. ~ Henri Michaux, #NFDB
1323:He who is really kind, can never be unhappy ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1324:he who is without sin cast the first stone. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1325:He who kisses girl on hillside is not level ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1326:He who knows himself knows god. ~ Clement of Alexandria, #NFDB
1327:He who labors diligently need never despair. ~ Menander, #NFDB
1328:He who loves men, loves their joy. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1329:He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1330:He who saves a life saves the world entire. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1331:He who walks straight rarely falls. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
1332:He who wants a rose must respect her thorn. ~ Andr Gide, #NFDB
1333:Home is the people who love you. ~ Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #NFDB
1334:Hope could ruin a man who faced forever. ~ Lisa Kessler, #NFDB
1335:How to be radiant Who obeys, shines. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1336:I always admire people who have passion. ~ Lesley Nicol, #NFDB
1337:I cannot love a man who cannot protect me. ~ Anne Bront, #NFDB
1338:I can’t abide people who dislike dogs, ~ Helen Simonson, #NFDB
1339:If you don't go for your dreams, who will? ~ Joe Vitale, #NFDB
1340:I help those who can help themselves. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1341:I know who I am, and that never changes. ~ Urijah Faber, #NFDB
1342:I'm a writer who likes to be influenced. ~ Kenneth Koch, #NFDB
1343:inhabited by those who died in wickness, ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1344:In war is it who's right, or who's left? ~ Kenneth Cole, #NFDB
1345:I really like clever men who challenge you. ~ E L James, #NFDB
1346:I respect those who don't secretly hate me. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1347:I surrendered who I was to who you are.. ~ Jeff Buckley, #NFDB
1348:It is your friends who make your world. ~ William James, #NFDB
1349:It’s hard to be the one who stays. ~ Audrey Niffenegger, #NFDB
1350:It's not just children who need heroes. ~ Tamora Pierce, #NFDB
1351:It's our choices that make us who we are. ~ Jeff Kinney, #NFDB
1352:I understand those who don't like me. ~ Vanessa Paradis, #NFDB
1353:I who was a house full of bowel movement, ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1354:Jesus, who did not sin, also felt pain. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
1355:Just be yourself man, be proud of who you are. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
1356:Know or listen to those who know.
~ Baltasar Gracian,#NFDB
1357:Leaders lead by virtue of who they are. ~ Kevin Cashman, #NFDB
1358:Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. ~ Osho, #NFDB
1359:looked at Jock Dundas, who was ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
1360:Love who and what you are and what you do. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
1361:Love yourself. Be proud of who you are. ~ Ashley Graham, #NFDB
1362:Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1363:Men who love the Stones are fixated on cock. ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
1364:Never trust he who trusts everyone. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
1365:Never trust he who trusts everyone. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
1366:Never trust the one who excels. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
1367:No man is free who cannot control himself. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
1368:None of us know who we are any more. ~ Catherine Fisher, #NFDB
1369:Nothing is impossible for him who believes. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1370:Once upon a time I met a man who saved me. ~ Ella Frank, #NFDB
1371:One who has hope lives differently. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
1372:Only he who is helpless can truly pray. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
1373:Only He who made man makes man happy. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1374:Only hire people who are better than you. ~ Laszlo Bock, #NFDB
1375:Only those who row the boat make waves ~ Christina Dodd, #NFDB
1376:People who avoid criticism will fail. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1377:People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. ~ Bob Hope, #NFDB
1378:Pessimist: The optimist who didn't arrive. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1379:Politics is who gets what, when, how. ~ Harold Lasswell, #NFDB
1380:Silence is a true friend who never betrays. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1381:(So), he who displays himself does not shine; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1382:Style requires digesting who we are. ~ Natalie Goldberg, #NFDB
1383:The best general is the one who never fights. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
1384:The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1385:The gull sees farthest who flies highest ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1386:The man who prays ceases to be a fool ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1387:There is no one alive who is youier than you ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1388:The Rich knowes not who is his friend. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1389:The truth, finally, is who can tell it. ~ Chang Rae Lee, #NFDB
1390:The truth, finally, is who can tell it. ~ Chang rae Lee, #NFDB
1391:The warrior who's strength is not to fight. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
1392:They live too long who happiness outlive. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1393:They should rule who are able to rule best. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1394:They, who know no evil, will suspect none. ~ Ben Jonson, #NFDB
1395:Those who are self-righteous are not prominent. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1396:Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. ~ Michael Baisden, #NFDB
1397:those who fail to plan, plan to fail! ~ Michael Baisden, #NFDB
1398:Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1399:Those who run first do not always run last, ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1400:Those who take long steps cannot keep the pace. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1401:We love most those who we serve most. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
1402:We’re friends, Lee. Friends who kiss a lot. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1403:We sing for these kids who don't have a thing. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
1404:We want what we want—we love who we love. ~ Jess Walter, #NFDB
1405:What happened? Who do I need to kill? ~ Carrie Ann Ryan, #NFDB
1406:What we are looking for is who is looking ~ Geneen Roth, #NFDB
1407:What would someone who loves themselves do? ~ Teal Swan, #NFDB
1408:When I discover who I am, I'll be free. ~ Ralph Ellison, #NFDB
1409:When I discover who I am, I’ll be free. ~ Ralph Ellison, #NFDB
1410:Who am I, then, if my memory is impaired? ~ Mira Bartok, #NFDB
1411:Who, being love, is poor? Oscar Wilde ~ Vikki Wakefield, #NFDB
1412:Who better to blame it on than a fairy? ~ Bobbie Hinman, #NFDB
1413:who can carry
The incineration of a Universe? ~ Ovid,#NFDB
1414:Who can distinguish darkness from the soul? ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
1415:Who controls money control the world. ~ Henry Kissinger, #NFDB
1416:who didn’t know how to use a shotgun? ~ Karin Slaughter, #NFDB
1417:who does any unauthorized act in relation ~ Kate Morton, #NFDB
1418:Who doth molest my contemplation? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1419:Who do we belong with but each other? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1420:Who do you serve? Do you serve somebody? ~ Alice Notley, #NFDB
1421:Who grins in official circumstances? ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
1422:Who in there dreams is not omnipotent? ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1423:Who killed him, Sheila? Who stabbed Harry? ~ Jane Casey, #NFDB
1424:Who needs fireworks when I have you? ~ Cherise Sinclair, #NFDB
1425:Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1426:Who owns your body? You or the state? ~ Martha Plimpton, #NFDB
1427:Who wants a dream that's near-fetched? ~ Howard Schultz, #NFDB
1428:WHO WE ARE IS WHERE WE ARE Whenever ~ Robert B Cialdini, #NFDB
1429:Who will be the happiest person? ~ Swami Satchidananda, #NFDB
1430:who wishes to fight must first count the cost ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
1431:ye who deals with death, should be smiling, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1432:You can root for someone who's imperfect. ~ Heidi Ewing, #NFDB
1433:You can’t battle someone who’s lost everything. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
1434:You look like the vamp who bled the cat. ~ Kim Harrison, #NFDB
1435:A child who reads will be an adult who thinks. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1436:A man who is afraid will do anything. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru, #NFDB
1437:An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow. ~ Edwin Booth, #NFDB
1438:An author is a writer who didn't give up. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1439:An idealist who couldn't cope becomes cynical. ~ Amy Ray, #NFDB
1440:Anybody who helps the poor is delighted. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1441:Anyone who's loved has more love to give. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1442:Artists who don't paint aren't artists. ~ Billy Childish, #NFDB
1443:A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1444:A trained assassin who babysits. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson, #NFDB
1445:author Donna Williams, who is autistic, ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
1446:blind wantons like the gulls who scream ~ Louis MacNeice, #NFDB
1447:But who wants an easy life ? It's boring ! ~ Jane Birkin, #NFDB
1448:case in California about a senator who—’ Harry ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1449:Charles Darwin, who had witnessed the ~ Jon Lee Anderson, #NFDB
1450:Doubt the man who swears to his devotion. ~ Louise Colet, #NFDB
1451:everyone who is interesting has a past ~ Jeannette Walls, #NFDB
1452:For they can conquer who believe they can. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1453:For those who are awake, the Cosmos is One. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1454:For those who love... time is eternity. ~ Henry Van Dyke, #NFDB
1455:God helps those who help themselves. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1456:God helps those who help themselves. ~ Tess Uriza Holthe, #NFDB
1457:God is the one who chooses our rulers ~ Katherine Harris, #NFDB
1458:God who preceded all existence is a refuge. ~ Maimonides, #NFDB
1459:Happy is the people who need no heroes. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
1460:Heaven help the man who fights his fear. ~ Kenny Loggins, #NFDB
1461:Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1462:He deposes Doom Who hath suffered him. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1463:He is always a slave who cannot live on little. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1464:He is not a lover who does not love forever. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1465:He loves little who loves by rule. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
1466:He never holds friends firmly who ~ Juan Ruiz de Alarcon, #NFDB
1467:Here's a quarter, call someone who cares. ~ Travis Tritt, #NFDB
1468:He wants worth who dares not praise a foe. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1469:He who acts, spoils; he who grasps, lets slip. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1470:He who dares not offend cannot be honest. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
1471:He who fears not death becomes its master. ~ Mike Norton, #NFDB
1472:He who has no dream is in danger ~ J n Kalman Stef nsson, #NFDB
1473:He who has two languages has two souls. ~ Quintus Ennius, #NFDB
1474:He who hides his madman, dies voiceless. ~ Henri Michaux, #NFDB
1475:He who injures one man threatens many. ~ Publilius Syrus, #NFDB
1476:He who knows about depth knows about God. ~ Paul Tillich, #NFDB
1477:He who lives among dogs must learn to pant. ~ Fred Hoyle, #NFDB
1478:He who plots to hurt others often hurts himself. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
1479:He who sings the praises of his boyhood's days. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1480:He who walks out of step hears another drum. ~ Ken Kesey, #NFDB
1481:He who wants a rose must respect her thorn. ~ Andre Gide, #NFDB
1482:How can we who died to sin still live in it? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1483:How sad when those who reason, reason wrong. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1484:I am who I am because of Dave Matthews Band ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
1485:I became the messenger who had to be killed ~ Anita Hill, #NFDB
1486:I cannot love a man who cannot protect me. ~ Anne Bronte, #NFDB
1487:I care what people who know me think of me. ~ Jenna Bush, #NFDB
1488:I don't love who I am so I'm working on a fix ~ Kid Cudi, #NFDB
1489:I don't want anyone who doesn't want me. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1490:If not now, when? If not you, who? ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1491:If scientists don't play God, who will? ~ James D Watson, #NFDB
1492:I know who I am and the values I have. ~ Sofia Hellqvist, #NFDB
1493:I like fighters who come to fight. ~ Floyd Mayweather Jr, #NFDB
1494:I like people who can't die in their bed. ~ Erri De Luca, #NFDB
1495:I love a man who can wear my underwear. ~ Yasmine Bleeth, #NFDB
1496:I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood. ~ Ira Gershwin, #NFDB
1497:I'm a self-made man. Who else would help? ~ Oscar Levant, #NFDB
1498:I'm not somebody who believes in evil. ~ Karin Slaughter, #NFDB
1499:I’m so tired I forget who I am sometimes. ~ Hannah Tinti, #NFDB
1500:I need to find out who I am without him. ~ Abby McDonald, #NFDB
2709 Integral Yoga
1722 Poetry
349 Philosophy
311 Occultism
268 Fiction
187 Christianity
181 Mysticism
135 Yoga
101 Islam
91 Psychology
53 Philsophy
39 Science
36 Sufism
34 Hinduism
23 Kabbalah
23 Education
22 Mythology
20 Theosophy
16 Integral Theory
10 Buddhism
8 Cybernetics
6 Baha i Faith
3 Zen
1 Thelema
1 Taoism
1 Alchemy
1702 The Mother
1026 Satprem
972 Sri Aurobindo
534 Nolini Kanta Gupta
226 William Wordsworth
167 Percy Bysshe Shelley
151 Aleister Crowley
138 Walt Whitman
130 H P Lovecraft
101 Muhammad
94 Friedrich Nietzsche
92 William Butler Yeats
91 Carl Jung
90 John Keats
77 Rabindranath Tagore
69 James George Frazer
67 Robert Browning
66 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
66 Friedrich Schiller
58 Plotinus
57 Sri Ramakrishna
54 Jalaluddin Rumi
53 Ralph Waldo Emerson
44 Jorge Luis Borges
43 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
39 Swami Vivekananda
39 Rainer Maria Rilke
38 Anonymous
37 Swami Krishnananda
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
34 Edgar Allan Poe
31 Saint Teresa of Avila
31 Lucretius
30 Saint John of Climacus
30 A B Purani
29 Aldous Huxley
28 Franz Bardon
25 Rudolf Steiner
23 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
22 Vyasa
22 Kabir
22 Aristotle
19 Hafiz
18 Ibn Arabi
16 Farid ud-Din Attar
15 Omar Khayyam
15 Li Bai
14 Ovid
14 Nirodbaran
12 Plato
11 Paul Richard
11 George Van Vrekhem
10 Sri Ramana Maharshi
9 Ramprasad
9 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
8 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
8 Solomon ibn Gabirol
8 Norbert Wiener
8 Joseph Campbell
7 Saint Francis of Assisi
7 Peter J Carroll
7 Mirabai
7 Lewis Carroll
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Hakim Sanai
7 Baha u llah
7 Alice Bailey
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Thomas Merton
6 Symeon the New Theologian
6 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
6 Jordan Peterson
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Al-Ghazali
5 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
5 Patanjali
5 Mechthild of Magdeburg
5 Lalla
5 Baba Sheikh Farid
4 William Blake
4 Sarmad
4 Saint John of the Cross
4 Saint Clare of Assisi
4 Muso Soseki
4 Mansur al-Hallaj
4 Jetsun Milarepa
4 Bulleh Shah
4 Allama Muhammad Iqbal
4 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Ravidas
3 Moses de Leon
3 Ken Wilber
3 Guru Nanak
3 Dante Alighieri
3 Boethius
2 Yannai
2 Vidyapati
2 Tao Chien
2 Shankara
2 Saint Therese of Lisieux
2 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Lu Tung Pin
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Jacopone da Todi
2 Italo Calvino
2 Ibn Ata Illah
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Hakuin
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Eleazar ben Kallir
2 Dadu Dayal
2 Alfred Tennyson
2 Alexander Pope
226 Wordsworth - Poems
212 Record of Yoga
168 Prayers And Meditations
167 Shelley - Poems
145 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
144 The Synthesis Of Yoga
131 Whitman - Poems
130 Lovecraft - Poems
106 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
102 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
102 Agenda Vol 01
101 Quran
92 Yeats - Poems
90 Keats - Poems
87 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
87 Agenda Vol 10
86 Agenda Vol 08
85 Magick Without Tears
83 Agenda Vol 13
82 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
78 Agenda Vol 09
76 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
75 Tagore - Poems
75 Agenda Vol 07
73 Agenda Vol 12
73 Agenda Vol 11
72 Agenda Vol 06
70 Agenda Vol 04
70 Agenda Vol 03
69 The Golden Bough
67 Browning - Poems
66 Schiller - Poems
65 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
65 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
64 Agenda Vol 02
61 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
58 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
57 Agenda Vol 05
56 The Life Divine
56 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
53 Liber ABA
53 Emerson - Poems
51 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Savitri
48 Letters On Yoga IV
46 Letters On Yoga II
43 Letters On Yoga III
41 Questions And Answers 1953
39 Rilke - Poems
39 Collected Poems
38 Mysterium Coniunctionis
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
36 Words Of Long Ago
35 Questions And Answers 1954
35 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
34 The Divine Comedy
34 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
33 Poe - Poems
31 Of The Nature Of Things
30 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
30 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
30 Essays On The Gita
29 The Perennial Philosophy
29 Rumi - Poems
28 The Bible
25 Letters On Yoga I
25 Labyrinths
25 Essays Divine And Human
24 The Practice of Psycho therapy
24 The Human Cycle
23 General Principles of Kabbalah
23 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
22 Words Of The Mother II
22 Vishnu Purana
22 Poetics
22 On Education
22 Faust
22 City of God
21 The Future of Man
21 Letters On Poetry And Art
21 Goethe - Poems
20 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
19 Borges - Poems
19 Bhakti-Yoga
18 Let Me Explain
18 Anonymous - Poems
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
17 Crowley - Poems
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
15 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
15 Li Bai - Poems
15 Isha Upanishad
15 Initiation Into Hermetics
15 Arabi - Poems
14 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
14 The Secret Of The Veda
14 The Phenomenon of Man
14 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
14 Songs of Kabir
14 Some Answers From The Mother
14 Metamorphoses
14 Hafiz - Poems
14 Aion
13 Twilight of the Idols
13 The Practice of Magical Evocation
13 Theosophy
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
13 Hymn of the Universe
12 Vedic and Philological Studies
12 Talks
12 Raja-Yoga
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
11 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
11 Kena and Other Upanishads
11 Dark Night of the Soul
10 The Problems of Philosophy
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Words Of The Mother III
8 The Integral Yoga
8 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
8 The Blue Cliff Records
8 Cybernetics
7 Walden
7 Liber Null
7 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
7 Alice in Wonderland
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 Maps of Meaning
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
6 Amrita Gita
5 Words Of The Mother I
5 Song of Myself
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
4 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Milarepa - Poems
4 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 Symposium
2 Selected Fictions
2 Notes On The Way
2 God Exists
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
- and it is terribly disturbing for all those Who still climb trees in the old, millennial way. Perhaps it is even a heresy. Unless it is some cerebral disorder? A first man in his little clearing had to have a great deal of courage. Even this little clearing was no longer so sure. A first man is a perpetual question. What am I, then, in the midst of all that? And where is my law? What is the law? And what if there were no more laws? ... It is terrifying. Mathematics - out of order. Astronomy and biology, too, are beginning to respond to mysterious influences. A tiny point huddled in the center of the world's great clearing. But what is all this, what if I were 'mad'? And then, claws all around, a lot of claws against this uncommon creature. A first man ... is very much alone. He is quite unbearable for the pre-human 'reason.' And the surrounding tribes growled like red monkies in the twilight of Guiana.
One day, we were like this first man in the great, stridulant night of the Oyapock. Our heart was beating with the rediscovery of a very ancient mystery - suddenly, it was absolutely new to be a man amidst the diorite cascades and the pretty red and black coral snakes slithering beneath the leaves. It was even more extraordinary to be a man than our old confirmed tribes, with their infallible equations and imprescriptible biologies, could ever have dreamed. It was an absolutely uncertain 'quantum' that delightfully eluded whatever one thought of it, including perhaps what even the scholars thought of it. It flowed otherwise, it felt otherwise. It lived in a kind of flawless continuity with the sap of the giant balata trees, the cry of the macaws and the scintillating water of a little fountain. It 'understood' in a very different way. To understand was to be in everything. Just a quiver, and one was in the skin of a little iguana in distress. The skin of the world was very vast.
--
A little white silhouette, twelve thousand miles away, solitary and frail amidst a spiritual horde which had once and for all decided that the meditating and miraculous yogi was the apogee of the species, was searching for the means, for the reality of this man Who for a moment believes himself sovereign of the heavens or sovereign of a machine, but Who is quite probably something completely different than his spiritual or material glories. Another, a lighter air was throbbing in that breast, unburdened of its heavens and of its prehistoric machines. Another Epic was beginning.
Would Matter and Spirit meet, then, in a third PHYSIOLOGICAL position that would perhaps be at last the position of Man rediscovered, the something that had for so long fought and suffered in quest of becoming its own species? She was the great Possible at the beginning of man. Mother is our fable come true. 'All is possible' was her first open sesame.
--
'Something else' is ominous, perilous, disrupting - it is quite unbearable for all those Who resemble the old beast. The story of the Pondicherry 'Ashram' is the story of an old clan ferociously clinging to its 'spiritual' privileges, as others clung to the muscles that had made them kings among the great apes. It is armed with all the piousness and all the reasonableness that had made logical man so 'infallible' among his less cerebral brothers. The spiritual brain is probably the worst obstacle to the new species, as were the muscles of the old orangutan for this fragile stranger Who no longer climbed so well in the trees and sat, pensive, at the center of a little, uncertain clearing.
There is nothing more pious than the old species. There is nothing more legal. Mother was searching for the path of the new species as much against all the virtues of the old as against all its vices or laws. For, in truth, 'Something Else' ... is something else.
--
No, She was not the 'Mother of the Pondicherry Ashram.' Then Who was She? ... We discovered
Her step by step, as one discovers a forest, or rather as one fights with it, machete in hand - and then it melts, one loves, so sublime does it become. Mother grew beneath our skin like an adventure of life and death. For seven years we fought with Her. It was fascinating, detestable, powerful and sweet; we felt like screaming and biting, fleeing and always coming back: 'Ah! You won't catch me! If you think I came here to worship you, you're wrong!' And She laughed. She always laughed.
--
The Whole time - or for seven years, in any event - we fought with our conception of God and the
'spiritual life': it was all so comfortable, for we had a supreme 'symbol' of it right there. She let us do as we pleased, She even opened up all kinds of little heavens in us, along with a few hells, since they go together. She even opened the door in us to a certain 'liberation,' which in the end was as soporific as eternity - but there was nowhere to get out: it WAS eternity. We were trapped on all sides. There was nothing left but these 4m2 of skin, the last refuge, that which we wanted to flee by way of above or below, by way of Guiana or the Himalayas. She was waiting for us just there, at the end of our spiritual or not so spiritual pirouettes. Matter was her concern. It took us seven years to understand that She was beginning there, 'where the other yogas leave off,' as Sri Aurobindo had already said twenty-five years earlier. It was necessary to have covered all the paths of the Spirit and all those of Matter, or in any case a large number geographically, before discovering, or even simply understanding, that 'something else' was really Something Else. It was not an improved
--
Sri Aurobindo! They would be fossils. The truth is always on the move. It is with those Who dare, Who have courage, and above all the courage to shatter all the effigies, to de-mystify, and to go
TRULY to the conquest of the new. The 'new' is painful, discouraging, it resembles nothing we know! We cannot hoist the flag of an unconquered country - but this is what is so marvelous: it does not yet exist. We must MAKE IT EXIST. The adventure has not been carved out: it is to be carved out. Truth is not entrapped and fossilized, 'spiritualized': it is to be discovered. We are in a nothing that we must force to become a something. We are in the adventure of the new species. A new species is obviously contradictory to the old species and to the little flags of the alreadyknown. It has nothing in common with the spiritual summits of the old world, nor even with its abysms - which might be delightfully tempting for those Who have had enough of the summits, but everything is the same, in black or white, it is fraternal above and below. SOMETHING ELSE is needed.
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the Whole atavistic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. The grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body to its usual decomposition. She had come to hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution Who had come to make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free from the habit of inexorably being a man Who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin brothers. Because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from his demons but also from his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know neither one nor the other. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: 'The age of
Capitalism and business is drawing to its close. But the age of Communism too will pass ... 'It is the hour of a pure little cell THAT WILL HAVE TERRESTRIAL REPERCUSSIONS, infinitely more radical than all our political and scientific or spiritualistic panaceas.
This fabulous discovery is the Whole story of the AGENDA. What is the passage? How is the path to the new species hewed open? ... Then suddenly, there, on the other side of this old millennial habit - a habit, nothing more than a habit! - of being like a man endowed with time and space and disease: an entire geometry, perfectly implacable and 'scientific' and medical; on the other side ... none of that at all! An illusion, a fantastic medical and scientific and genetic illusion:
death does not exist, time does not exist, disease does not exist, nor do 'scar' and 'far' - another way of being IN A BODY. For so many millions of years we have lived in a habit and put our own thoughts of the world and of Matter into equations. No more laws! Matter is FREE. It can create a little lizard, a chipmunk or a parrot - but it has created enough parrots. Now it is SOMETHING
--
Day after day, for seventeen years, She sat with us to tell us of her impossible odyssey. Ah, how well we now understand why She needed such an 'outlaw' and an incorrigible heretic like us to comprehend a little bit of her impossible odyssey into 'nothing.' And how well we now understand her infinite patience with us, despite all our revolts, which ultimately were only the revolts of the old species against itself. The final revolt. 'It is not a revolt against the British government which any one can easily do. It is, in fact, a revolt against the Whole universal Nature!' Sri Aurobindo had proclaimed fifty years earlier. She listened to our grievances, we went away and we returned. We wanted no more of it and we wanted still more. It was infernal and sublime, impossible and the sole possibility in this old, asphyxiating world. It was the only place one could go to in this barbedwired, mechanized world, where Cincinnati is just as crowded and polluted as Hong Kong. The new species is the last free place in the general Prison. It is the last hope for the earth. How we listened to her little faltering voice that seemed to return from afar, afar, after having crossed spaces and seas of the mind to let its little drops of pure, crystalline words fall upon us, words that make you see. We listened to the future, we touched the other thing. It was incomprehensible and yet filled with another comprehension. It eluded us on all sides, and yet it was dazzlingly obvious. The 'other species' was really radically other, and yet it was vibrating within, absolutely recognizable, as if it were THAT we had been seeking from age to age, THAT we had been invoking through all our illuminations, one after another, in Thebes as in Eleusis as everywhere we have toiled and grieved in the skin of a man. It was for THAT we were here, for that supreme Possible in the skin of a man at last. And then her voice grew more and more frail, her breath began gasping as though She had to traverse greater and greater distances to meet us. She was so alone to beat against the walls of the old prison. Many claws were out all around. Oh, we would so quickly have cut ourself free from all this fiasco to fly away with Her into the world's future. She was so tiny, stooped over, as if crushed beneath the 'spiritual' burden that all the old surrounding species kept heaping upon her. They didn't believe, no. For them, She was ninety-five years old + so many days. Can someone become a new species all alone? They even grumbled at Her: they had had enough of this unbearable Ray that was bringing their sordid affairs into the daylight. The Ashram was slowly closing over Her. The old world wanted to make a new, golden little Church, nice and quiet. No, no one wanted TO
BECOME. To worship was so much easier. And then they bury you, solemnly, and the matter is settled - the case is closed: now, no one need bother any more except to print some photographic haloes for the pilgrims to this brisk little business. But they are mistaken. The real business will take place without them, the new species will fly up in their faces - it is already flying in the face of the earth, despite all its isms in black and white; it is exploding through all the pores of this battered old earth, which has had enough of shams - whether illusory little heavens or barbarous little machines.
--
something to be played forever as the one great game of the world; a Who-knows-what that left this sprig of a pensive man in the middle of a clearing; a little 'something' that beats, beats, that keeps on breathing beneath every skin that has ever been put on it - like our deepest breath, our lightest air, our air of nothing - and it keeps on going, it keeps on going. We must catch the light little breath, the little pulsation of nothing. Then suddenly, on the threshold of our clearing of concrete, our head starts spinning incurably, our eyes blink into something else, and all is different, and all seems surcharged with meaning and with life, as though we had never lived until that very minute.
Then we have caught the tail of the Great Possible, we are upon the wayless way, radically in the new, and we flow with the little lizard, the pelican, the big man, we flow everywhere in a world that has lost its old separating skin and its little baggage of habits. We begin seeing otherwise, feeling otherwise. We have opened the gate into an inconceivable clearing. Just a light little vibration that carries you away. Then we begin to understand how it CAN CHANGE, what the mechanism is - a light little mechanism and so miraculous that it looks like nothing. We begin feeling the wonder of a pure little cell, and that a sparkling of joy would be enough to turn the world inside out. We were living in a little thinking fishbowl, we were dying in an old, bottled habit. And then suddenly, all is different. The Earth is free! Who wants freedom?
It begins in a cell.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Furthermore, being so, the mystic domain is of infinitely greater potency than the domain of intra-atomic forces. If one comes, all on a sudden, into contact with a force here without the necessary preparation to hold and handle it, he may get seriously bruised, morally and physically. The adventure into the mystic domain has its own toll of casualtiesone can lose the mind, one can lose one's body even and it is a very common experience among those Who have tried the path. It is not in vain and merely as a poetic metaphor that the ancient seers have said
Kurasya dhr niit duratyay1
--
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is established the Truth," says the Upanishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, Who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is precisely because, as I have just mentioned, Gargi sought to shoot uplike "vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself" of which Shakespeare speaksthrough the mind alone to the highest truth that Yajnavalkya had to pull her up and give the warning that she risked losing her head if she persisted in her questioning endlessly.
For true knowledge comes of, and means, identity of being. All other knowledge may be an apprehension of things but not comprehension. In the former, the knower stands apart from the object and so can envisage only the outskirts, the contour, the surface nature; the mind is capable of this alone. But comprehension means an embracing and penetration which is possible when the knower identifies himself with the object. And when we are so identified we not merely know the object, but becoming it in our consciousness, we love it and live it.
--
The mystic's knowledge and experience is not only true and real: it is delightful and blissful. It has a supremely healing virtue. It brings a sovereign freedom and ease and peace to the mystic himself, but also to those around him, Who come in contact with him. For truth and reality are made up of love and harmony, because truth is, in its essence, unity.
Sharp as a razor's edge, difficult of going, hard to traverse is that path!"
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
After nearly seven years, however, he felt a strong urge to note down what the Mother had spoken; so in 1967 he wrote down from memory a report in French. The report was seen by the Mother and a few corrections were made by her. To another sadhak Who asked Her permission to read this report She wrote: "Years ago I have spoken at length about it [Savitri] to Mona Sarkar and he has noted in French what I said. Some time back I have seen what he has written and found it correct on the Whole."(4.12.1967)
On a few other occasion also, the Mother had spoken to the same sadhak on the value of reading Savitri which he had noted down afterwards. These notes have been added at the end of the main report. A few members of the Ashram had privately read this report in French, but afterwards there were many requests for its English version. A translation was therefore made in November 1967. A proposal was made to the Mother in 1972 for its publication and it was submitted to Her for approval. The Mother wanted to check the translation before permitting its publication but could check only a portion of it.
--
You have read the Whole poem?
Yes, Mother, I have read it twice.
--
Savitri alone is sufficient to make you climb to the highest peaks. If truly one knows how to meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him Who wishes to follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you to the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.
*He has crammed the Whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, *I am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" from the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the Whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.
It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide Who never abandons you; its support is always there for him Who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM.
My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers Who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself from the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the Whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga.
All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.
These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-misery to brea the the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His Whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness.
And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. The farther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in The Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed.
--
My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, Whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him Who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
~ The Mother Sweet Mother The Mother to Mona Sarkar, [T0]
00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mystics all over the world and in all ages have clothed their sayings in proverbs and parables, in figures and symbols. To speak in symbols seems to be in their very nature; it is their characteristic manner, their inevitable style. Let us see what is the reason behind it. But first Who are the Mystics? They are those Who are in touch with supra-sensual things, Whose experiences are of a world different from the common physical world, the world of the mind and the senses.
These other worlds are constituted in other ways than ours. Their contents are different and the laws that obtain there are also different. It would be a gross blunder to attempt a chart of any of these other systems, to use an Einsteinian term, with the measures and conventions of the system to which our external waking consciousness belongs. For, there "the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, neither these lightnings nor this fire." The difficulty is further enhanced by the fact that there are very many unseen worlds and they all differ from the seen and from one another in manner and degree. Thus, for example, the Upanishads speak of the swapna, the suupta, and the turya, domains beyond the jgrat which is that where the rational being with its mind and senses lives and moves. And there are other systems and other ways in which systems exist, and they are practically innumerable.
If, however, we have to speak of these other worlds, then, since we can speak only in the terms of this world, we have to use them in a different sense from those they usually bear; we must employ them as figures and symbols. Even then they may prove inadequate and misleading; so there are Mystics Who are averse to all speech and expression they are mauni; in silence they experience the inexpressible and in silence they communicate it to the few Who have the capacity to receive in silence.
But those Who do speak, how do they choose their figures and symbols? What is their methodology? For it might be said, since the unseen and the seen differ out and out, it does not matter what forms or signs are taken from the latter; for any meaning and significance could be put into anything. But in reality, it does not so happen. For, although there is a great divergence between figures and symbols on the one hand and the things figured and symbolised on the other, still there is also some link, some common measure. And that is why we see not unoften the same or similar figures and symbols representing an identical experience in ages and countries far apart from each other.
We can make a distinction here between two types of expression which we have put together indiscriminately, figures and symbols. Figures, we may say, are those that are constructed by the rational mind, the intellect; they are mere metaphors and similes and are not organically related to the thing experienced, but put round it as a robe that can be dropped or changed without affecting the experience itself. Thus, for example, when the Upanishad says, tmnam rathinam viddhi (Know that the soul is the master of the chariot Who sits within it) or indriyi haynhu (The senses, they say, are the horses), we have here only a comparison or analogy that is common and natural to the poetic manner. The particular figure or simile used is not inevitable to the idea or experience that it seeks to express, its part and parcel. On the other hand, take this Upanishadic perception: hirayamayena patrea satyasyphitam mukham (The face of the Truth lies hidden under the golden orb). Here the symbol is not mere analogy or comparison, a figure; it is one with the very substance of the experience the two cannot be separated. Or when the Vedas speak of the kindling of the Fire, the rushing of the waters or the rise of the Dawn, the images though taken from the material world, are not used for the sake of mere comparison, but they are the embodiments, the living forms of truths experienced in another world.
When a Mystic refers to the Solar Light or to the Fire the light, for example, that struck down Saul and transformed him into Saint Paul or the burning bush that visited Moses, it is not the physical or material object that he means and yet it is that in a way. It is the materialization of something that is fundamentally not material: some movement in an inner consciousness precipitates itself into the region of the senses and takes from out of the material the form commensurable with its nature that it finds there.
And there is such a commensurability or parallelism between the various levels of consciousness, in and through all the differences that separate them from one another. Thus an object or a movement apprehended on the physical plane has a sort of line of re-echoing images extended in a series along the Whole gradation of the inner planes; otherwise viewed, an object or movement in the innermost consciousness translates itself in varying modes from plane to plane down to the most material, where it appears in its grossest form as a concrete three-dimensional object or a mechanical movement. This parallelism or commensurability by virtue of which the different and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each other is the source of all symbolism.
A symbol symbolizes something for this reason that both possess in common a certain identical, at least similar, quality or rhythm or vibration, the symbol possessing it in a grosser or more apparent or sensuous form than the thing symbolized does. Sometimes it may happen that it is more than a certain quality or rhythm or vibration that is common between the two: the symbol in its entirety is the thing symbolized but thrown down on another plane, it is the embodiment of the latter in a more concrete world. The light and the fire that Saint Paul and Moses saw appear to be of this kind.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There was an aspirant, a student Who was seeking after knowledge. One day there appeared to him a white dog. Soon, other dogs followed and addressed their predecessor: "O Lord, sing to our Food, for we desire to eat." The white dog answered, "Come to me at dawn here in this very place." The aspirant waited. The dogs, like singer-priests, circled round in a ring. Then they sat and cried aloud; they cried out," Om We eat and Om we drink, may the gods bring here our food."
Now, before any explanation is attempted it is important to bear in mind that the Upanishads speak of things experiencednot merely thought, reasoned or argued and that these experiences belong to a world and consciousness other than that of the mind and the senses. One should naturally expect here a different language and mode of expression than that which is appropriate to mental and physical things. For example, the world of dreams was once supposed to be a sheer chaos, a mass of meaningless confusion; but now it is held to be quite otherwise. Psychological scientists have discovered a methodeven a very well-defined and strict methodin the madness of that domain. It is an ordered, organised, significant world; but its terminology has to be understood, its code deciphered. It is not a jargon, but a foreign language that must be learnt and mastered.
In the same way, the world of spiritual experiences is also something methodical, well-organized, significant. It may not be and is not the rational world of the mind and the sense; but it need not, for that reason, be devoid of meaning, mere fancifulness or a child's imagination running riot. Here also the right key has to be found, the grammar and vocabulary of that language mastered. And as the best way to have complete mastery of a language is to live among the people Who speak it, so, in the matter of spiritual language, the best and the only way to learn it is to go and live in its native country.
Now, as regards the interpretation of the story cited, should not a suspicion arise naturally at the very outset that the dog of the story is not a dog but represents something else? First, a significant epithet is given to itwhite; secondly, although it asks for food, it says that Om is its food and Om is its drink. In the Vedas we have some references to dogs. Yama has twin dogs that "guard the path and have powerful vision." They are his messengers, "they move widely and delight in power and possess the vast strength." The Vedic Rishis pray to them for Power and Bliss and for the vision of the Sun1. There is also the Hound of Heaven, Sarama, Who comes down and discovers the luminous cows stolen and hidden by the Panis in their dark caves; she is the path-finder for Indra, the deliverer.
My suggestion is that the dog is a symbol of the keen sight of Intuition, the unfailing perception of direct knowledge. With this clue the Upanishadic story becomes quite sensible and clear and not mere abracadabra. To the aspirant for Knowledge came first a purified power of direct understanding, an Intuition of fundamental value, and this brought others of the same species in its train. They were all linked together organically that is the significance of the circle, and formed a rhythmic utterance and expression of the supreme truth (Om). It is also to be noted that they came and met at dawn to chant, the Truth. Dawn is the opening and awakening of the consciousness to truths that come from above and beyond.
It may be asked why the dog has been chosen as the symbol of Intuition. In the Vedas, the cow and the horse also play a large part; even the donkey and the frog have their own assigned roles. These objects are taken from the environment of ordinary life, and are those that are most familiar to the external consciousness, through which the inner experiences have to express themselves, if they are to be expressed at all. These material objects represent various kinds of forces and movements and subtle and occult and spiritual dynamisms. Strictly speaking, however, symbols are not chosen in a subtle or spiritual experience, that is to say, they are not arbitrarily selected and constructed by the conscious intelligence. They form part of a dramatization (to use a term of the Freudian psychology of dreams), a psychological alchemy, Whose method and process and rationale are very obscure, which can be penetrated only by the vision of a third eye.
I. The Several Lights
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The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking consciousness and has his seat in the eyecakusa ditya, ditya caku bhtvakii prviat. The eye is the representative of the senses; it is the sense par excellence. In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire from the senses and rise into the mind, Whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not vision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. Then we come nearer, to the immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth the Wordreaches us to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate Light. The Word too is clothing, though a luminous clothinghiramayam ptram When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body; we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become that Light.
II. The Four Oblations
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Ritualistically these four terms are the formulae for oblation to four Deities, Powers or Presences, Whom the sacrificer wishes to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing and in order thereby to discharge his dharma or duty of life. Svh is the offering especially dedicated to Agni, the foremost of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger Who carries men's offering to the Gods and brings their blessing to men. Vaatkr is the offering to the Gods generally. Hantakr is the offering to mankind, to our kin, an especial form of it being the worship of the guests,sarvadevamayo' tithi. Svadh is the offering to the departed Fathers (Pitris).
The duty of life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth upon earth the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors. This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference to the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives and moves and to which he must adjust and react rightly -if he is to secure for his life an integral fulfilment. These are the family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe, the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality: To worship the Gods, to do one's duty by them, means to come into contact and to be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human life. The seconda more circumscribed fieldis the society to which one belongs, the particular group of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service to society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs to the family, which is the unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of ancestors, Who are its presiding deity and represent the norm of a living dharma, the ethic of an ideal life.
From the psychological standpoint, the four oblations are movements or reactions of consciousness in its urge towards the utterance and expression of Divine Truth. Like some other elements in the cosmic play, these also form a quartetcaturvyha and work together for a common purpose in view of a perfect and all-round result.
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The Gods are the formations or particularisations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One spirit. The Pitris are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and realised here below, and now have passed beyond. They dwell in another world, not too far removed from the earth, and from there, with the force of their Realisation, lend a more concrete help and guidance to the destiny that is being worked out upon earth. They are forces and formations of consciousness in an intermediate region between Here and There (antarika), and serve to bring men and gods nearer to each other, inasmuch as they belong to both the categories, being a divinised humanity or a humanised divinity. Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould is a thing of joy to the Pitris; it is the Svadh or food by which they live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own realisation. The achievements of the sons are more easily and securely reared and grounded upon those of the forefa thers, Whose formative powers we have to invoke, so that we may pass on to the realisation, the firm embodiment of higher and greater destinies.
III. The Path of the Fathers and the Path of the Gods
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And they Who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
IV. The Triple Agni
Agni is the divine spark in man, the flaming consciousness in the mortal which purifies and uplifts (pvaka) mortality into immortality. It is the god "seated in the secret heart, Who is the possession of infinity and the foundation of existence," as Yama says to Nachiketas.8
Indeed, it was to this godhead that Nachiketas turned and he wanted to know of it and find it, when faith seized on his pure heart and he aspired for the higher spiritual life. The very opening hymn of the Rig Veda, too, is addressed to Agni, Who is invoked as the vicar seated in the front of the sacrifice, the giver of the supreme gifts.
King Yama initiated Nachiketas into the mystery of Fire Worship and spoke of three fires that have to be kindled if one aspires to enter the heaven of immortality.
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Of the three fires one is the upholderhe Who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the Veda jtaved, Who guides and directs; and the third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energyvaivnara.
V. The Five Great Elements
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The Science of the Five Agnis (Fires), as propounded by Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul into earth existence. It describes the advent of the child, the building of the physical form of the human being. The process is conceived of as a sacrifice, the usual symbol with the Vedic Rishis for the expression of their vision and perception of universal processes of Nature, physical and psychological. Here, the child IS said to be the final fruit of the sacrifice, the different stages in the process being: (i) Soma, (ii) Rain, (iii) Food, (iv) Semen, (v) Child. Soma means Rasaphysically the principle of water, psychologically the 'principle of delightand symbolises and constitutes the very soul and substance of life. Now it is said that these five principles the fundamental and constituent elementsare born out of the sacrifice, through the oblation or offering to the five Agnis. The first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God, and by offering to it one's faith and one's ardent desire, one calls into manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water, the basic principle of life. This water is next offered to the second Agni, the Rain-God, Who sends down Rain. Rain, again, is offered to the third Agni, the Earth, Who brings forth Food. Food is, in its turn, offered to the fourth Agni, the Father or Male, Who elaborates in himself the generating fluid.
Finally, this fluid is offered to the fifth Agni, the Mother or the Female, Who delivers the Child.
The biological process, described in what may seem to be crude and mediaeval terms, really reflects or echoes a more subtle and psychological process. The images used form perhaps part of the current popular notion about the matter, but the esoteric sense goes beyond the outer symbols. The sky seems to be the far and tenuous region where the soul rests and awaits its next birthit is the region of Soma, the own Home of Bliss and Immortality. Now when the time or call comes, the soul stirs and journeys down that is the Rain. Next, it enters the earth atmosphere and clothes itself with the earth consciousness. Then it waits and calls for the formation of the material body, first by the contri bution of the father and then by that of the mother; when these two unite and the material body is formed, the soul incarnates.
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We have, in modern times, a movement towards a more conscious and courageous, knowledge of things that were taboo to puritan ages. Not to shut one's eyes to the lower, darker and hidden strands of our nature, but to bring them out into the light of day and to face them is the best way of dealing with such elements, which otherwise, if they are repressed, exert an unhealthy influence on the mind and nature. The Upanishadic view runs on the same lines, but, with the unveiling and the natural and not merely naturalisticdelineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitatis. The sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or to the combined action of Purusha and Prakriti in the cosmic Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and moves the universe. In this view there is nothing merely secular and profane, but all is woven into the cosmic spiritual Whole; and man is taught to consider and to mould all his movementsof soul and mind and bodyin the light and rhythm of that integral Reality.11
The central secret of the transfigured consciousness lies, as we have already indicated, in the mystic rite or law of Sacrifice. It is the one basic, fundamental, universal Law that upholds and explains the cosmic movement, conformity to which brings to the thrice-bound human being release and freedom. Sacrifice consists essentially of two elements or processes: (i) The offering or self giving of the lower reality to the higher, and, as a consequence, an answering movement of (ii) the descent of the higher into the lower. The lower offered to the higher means the lower sublimated and integrated into the higher; and the descent of the higher into the lower means the incarnation of the former and the fulfilment of the latter. The Gita elaborates the same idea when it says that by Sacrifice men increase the gods and the gods increase men and by so increasing each other they attain the supreme Good. Nothing is, nothing is done, for its own sake, for an egocentric satisfaction; all, even movements relating to food and to sex should be dedicated to the Cosmic BeingVisva Purusha and that alone received which comes from Him.
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TheChhandyogya12 gives a Whole typal scheme of this universal reality and explains how to realise it and what are the results of the experience. The Universal Brahman means the cosmic movement, the cyclic march of things and events taken in its global aspect. The typical movement that symbolises and epitomises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the sun. The movement consists of five stages which are called the fivefold sma Sma means the equal Brahman that is ever present in all, the Upanishad itself says deriving the word from sama It is Sma also because it is a rhythmic movement, a cadencea music of the spheres. And a rhythmic movement, in virtue of its being a wave, consists of these five stages: (i) the start, (ii) the rise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the fall. Now the sun follows this curve and marks out the familiar divisions of the day: dawn, forenoon, noon, afternoon and sunset. Sometimes two other stages are added, one at each end, one of preparation and another of final lapse the twilights with regard to the sun and then ,we have seven instead of five smas Like the Sun, the Fire that is to say, the sacrificial Firecan also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement: (i) the lighting, (ii) the smoke, (iii) the flame, (iv) smouldering and finally (v) extinction the fuel as it is rubbed to produce the fire and the ashes may be added as the two supernumerary stages. Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the five worlds or of the deities that control these worlds. The living wealth of this earth is also symbolised in a quintetgoat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of his five senses, basis of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to I bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upanishad refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity: (i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of creation, (ii) the three worlds or fieldsearth, air-belt or atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively these worldsFire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodimentsstars and birds and light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these worldsto earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fathers.
Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it, become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the life universal; the small lean separate life is enlarged and moulded in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move and sustain the cosmos. The Upanishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All-Life and lives uninterruptedly and perennially: Sarvamanveti jyok jvati.
Still the Upanishad says this is not the final end. There is yet a higher status of reality and consciousness to which one has to rise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. The Upanishad expresses this truth and experience in various symbols. The cosmic reality, we have seen, is often conceived as a septenary, a unity of seven elements, principles and worlds. Further to give it its full complex value, it is considered not as a simple septet, but a threefold heptad the Whole gamut, as it were, consisting of 21 notes or syllables. The Upanishad says, this number does not exhaust the entire range; I for there is yet a 22nd place. This is the world beyond the Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood. The Veda I also sometimes speaks of the integral reality as being represented by the number 100 which is 99 + I; in other words, 99 represents the cosmic or universal, the unity being the reality beyond, the Transcendent.
Elsewhere the Upanishad describes more graphically this truth and the experience of it. It is said there that the sun has fivewe note the familiar fivemovements of rising and setting: (i) from East to West, (ii) from South to North, (iii) from West to East, (iv) from North to South and (v) from abovefrom the Zenithdownward. These are the five normal and apparent movements. But there is a sixth one; rather it is not a movement, but a status, where the sun neither rises nor sets, but is always visible fixed in the same position.
Some Western and Westernised scholars have tried to show that the phenomenon described here is an exclusively natural phenomenon, actually visible in the polar region where the sun never sets for six months and moves in a circle Whose plane is parallel to the plane of the horizon on the summer solstice and is gradually inclined as the sun regresses towards the equinox (on which day just half the solar disc is visible above the horizon). The sun may be said there to move in the direction East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the Upanishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and gives a character to each successive station. The Ray from the East is red, symbolising the Rik, the Southern Ray is white, symbolising the Yajur, the Western Ray is black symbolising the Atharva. The natural phenomenon, however, might have been or might not have been before the mind's eye of the Rishi, but the symbolism, the esotericism of it is clear enough in the way the Rishi speaks of it. Also, apart from the first four movements (which it is already sufficiently difficult to identify completely with what is visible), the fifth movement, as a separate descending movement from above appears to be a foreign element in the context. And although, with regard to the sixth movement or status, the sun is visible as such exactly from the point of the North Pole for a while, the ring of the Rishi's utterance is unmistakably spiritual, it cannot but refer to a fact of inner consciousness that is at least what the physical fact conveys to the Rishi and what he seeks to convey and express primarily.
Now this is what is sought to be conveyed and expressed. The five movements of the sun here also are nothing but the five smas and they refer to the cycle of the Cosmic or Universal Brahman. The sixth status where all movements cease, where there is no rising and setting, no ebb and flow, no waxing and waning, where there is the immutable, the ever-same unity, is very evidently the Transcendental Brahman. It is That to which the Vedic Rishi refers when he prays for a constant and fixed vision of the eternal Sunjyok ca sryam drie.
It would be interesting to know what the five ranges or levels or movements of consciousness exactly are that make up the Universal Brahman described in this passage. It is the mystic knowledge, the Upanishad says, of the secret delight in thingsmadhuvidy. The five ranges are the five fundamental principles of delightimmortalities, the Veda would say that form the inner core of the pyramid of creation. They form a rising tier and are ruled respectively by the godsAgni, Indra, Varuna, Soma and Brahmawith their emanations and instrumental personalities the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Maruts and the Sadhyas. We suggest that these refer to the five well-known levels of being, the modes or nodi of consciousness or something very much like them. The Upanishad speaks elsewhere of the five sheaths. The six Chakras of Tantric system lie in the same line. The first and the basic mode is the physical and the ascent from the physical: Agni and the Vasus are always intimately connected with the earth and -the earth-principles (it can be compared with the Muladhara of the Tantras). Next, second in the line of ascent is the Vital, the centre of power and dynamism of which the Rudras are the deities and Indra the presiding God (cf. Swadhishthana of the Tantras the navel centre). Indra, in the Vedas, has two aspects, one of knowledge and vision and the other of dynamic force and drive. In the first aspect he is more often considered as the Lord of the Mind, of the Luminous Mind. In the present passage, Indra is taken in his second aspect and instead of the Maruts with Whom he is usually invoked has the Rudras as his agents and associates.
The third in the line of ascension is the region of Varuna and the Adityas, that is to say, of the large Mind and its lightsperhaps it can be connected with Tantric Ajnachakra. The fourth is the domain of Soma and the Marutsthis seems to be the inner heart, the fount of delight and keen and sweeping aspirations the Anahata of the Tantras. The fifth is the region of the crown of the head, the domain of Brahma and the Sadhyas: it is the Overmind status from where comes the descending inflatus, the creative Maya of Brahma. And when you go beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun, the reality absolute, the Transcendent which is indescribable, unseizable, indeterminate, indeterminable, incommensurable; and once there, one never returns, neverna ca punarvartate na ca punarvartate.
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"How many Gods are there?" Yajnavalkya was once asked.13 The Rishi answered, they say there are three thousand and three of them, or three hundred and three, or again, thirty-three; it may be said too there are six or three or two or one and a half or one finally. Indeed as the Upanishad says elsewhere, it is the One Unique Who wished to be many: and all the gods are the various glories (mahim) or emanations of the One Divine. The ancient of ancient Rishis had declared long long ago, in the earliest Veda, that there is one indivisible Reality, the seers name it in various ways.
In Yajnavalkya's enumeration, however, it is to be noted, first of all, that he stresses on the number three. The principle of triplicity is of very wide application: it permeates all fields of consciousness and is evidently based upon a fundamental fact of reality. It seems to embody a truth of synthesis and comprehension, points to the order and harmony that reigns in the cosmos, the spheric music. The metaphysical, that is to say, the original principles that constitute existence are the well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and (ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mindthis being a reflection or translation or concretisation of the former. We can see also here how the dual principle comes in, the twin godhead or the two gods to which Yajnavalkya refers. The same principle is found in the conception of Ardhanarishwara, Male and Female, Purusha-Prakriti. The Upanishad says 14 yet again that the One original Purusha was not pleased at being alone, so for a companion he created out of himself the original Female. The dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity of the Reality. But what is this one and a half to which Yajnavalkya refers? It simply means that the other created out of the one is not a Wholly separate, independent entity: it is not an integer by itself, as in the Manichean system, but that it is a portion, a fraction of the One. And in the end, in the ultimate analysis, or rather synthesis, there is but one single undivided and indivisible unity. The thousands and hundreds, very often mentioned also in the Rig Veda, are not simply multiplications of the One, a graphic description of its many-sidedness; it indicates also the absolute fullness, the complete completeness (prasya pram) of the Reality. It includes and comprehends all and is a rounded totality, a full circle. The hundred-gated and the thousand-pillared cities of which the ancient Rishis chanted are formations and embodiments of consciousness human and divine, are realities Whole and entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.
Besides this metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and in which the Vedic Rishis too seem to take special delight. The multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the principle of emanation. The One has divided and subdivided itself, but not in a haphazard way: it is not like the chaotic pulverisation of a piece of stone by hammer-blows. The process of division and subdivision follows a pattern almost as neat and methodical as a genealogical tree. That is to say, the emanations form a hierarchy. At the top, the apex of the pyramid, stands the one supreme Godhead. That Godhead is biune in respect of manifestation the Divine and his creative Power. This two-in-one reality may be considered, according to one view of creation, as dividing into three forms or aspects the well-known Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra of Hindu mythology. These may be termed the first or primary emanations.
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Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and comprises in him all beings from the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or elf. And yet each human being in his true personality is a lineal descendant of one or other typal aspect or original Personality of the one supreme Reality; and his individual character is all the more pronounced and well-defined the more organised and developed is the being. The psychic being in man is thus a direct descent, an immediate emanation along a definite line of devolution of the supreme consciousness. We may now understand and explain easily why one chooses a particular Ishta, an ideal god, what is the drive that pushes one to become a worshipper of Siva or Vishnu or any other deity. It is not any rational understanding, a weighing of pros and cons and then a resultant conclusion that leads one to choose a path of religion or spirituality. It is the soul's natural call to the God, the type of being and consciousness of which it is a spark, from which it has descended, it is the secret affinity the spiritual blood-relation as it were that determines the choice and adherence. And it is this that we name Faith. And the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend such adherence and which go "by the "name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., a;e a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration consciousness is global and not exclusive. And the human being that attains such a status is not bound or Wholly limited to one particular formation: its personality is based on the truth of impersonality. And yet the two can go together: an individual can be impersonal in consciousness and yet personal in becoming and true to type.
The number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on which we stand. On this material plane there are as many gods as there are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types Whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself.
IX. Nachiketas' Three Boons
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The first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of that individuality so that it may be saved from the dissolution that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the dissolution of the body, but it represents also dissolution pure and simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the body gone, the other elements of the individual organism, the vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and dissolve. Nachiketas wishes to secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organisation of mind and vital based upon a recognisable physical frame. That is the first necessity for the aspiring mortalfor, it is said, the body is the first instrument for the working out of one's life ideal. But man's true personality, the real individuality lies beyond, beyond the body, beyond the life, beyond the mind, beyond the triple region that Death lords it over. That is the divine world, the Heaven of the immortals, beyond death and beyond sorrow and grief. It is the hearth secreted in the inner heart where burns the Divine Fire, the God of Life Everlasting. And this is the nodus that binds together the threefold status of the manifested existence, the body, the life and the mind. This triplicity is the structure of name and form built out of the bricks of experience, the kiln, as it were, within which burns the Divine Agni, man's true soul. This soul can be reached only when one exceeds the bounds and limitations of the triple cord and experiences one's communion and identity with all souls and all existence. Agni is the secret divinity within, within the individual and within the world; he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds together and marshals all the elements and components, all the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is that has entered into the world and created facets of his own reality in multiple forms: and it is he that lies secret in the human being as the immortal soul through all its adventure of life and death in the series of incarnations in terrestrial evolution. The adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity, the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, consists in the triple sacrifice, the triple work, the triple union in the triple status of the physical, the vital and the mental consciousness, the mastery of which leads one to the other shore, the abode of perennial existence where the human soul enjoys its eternity and unending continuity in cosmic life. Therefore, Agni, the master of the psychic being, is called jtaveds, he Who knows the births, all the transmigrations from life to life.
The third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? The release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinctionDeath in his supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to dissuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man should attend to practical and immediate realities and not, waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the actual.
But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarymis called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama teaches the process of transcendence. Apart from the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present) is to ascend and evolve. The first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable (reya and preya). The line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false: while the other path leads towards the inner and the higher truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness from the physical and the sensual and even the mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness in the heart of all that is unstable and fleetingone has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in mortality, the Timeless in time through Whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.
Man has two souls corresponding to his double status. In the inferior, the soul looks downward and is involved in the current of Impermanence and Ignorance, it tastes of grief and sorrow and suffers death and dissolution: in the higher it looks upward and communes and joins with the Eternal (the cosmic) and then with the Absolute (the transcendent). The lower is a reflection of the higher, the higher comes down in a diminished and hence tarnished light. The message is that of deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its bondage of worldly ignorant life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest status. It is true, however, that the Upanishad does not make a trenchant distinction between the cosmic and the transcendent and often it speaks of both in the same breath, as it were. For in fact they are realities involved in each other and interwoven. Indeed the triple status, including the Individual, forms one single totality and the three do not exclude or cancel each other; on the contrary, they combine and may be said to enhance each other's reality. The Transcendence expresses or deploys itself in the cosmoshe goes abroad,sa paryagt: and the cosmic individualises, concretises itself in the particular and the personal. The one single spiritual reality holds itself, aspects itself in a threefold manner.
The teaching of Yama in brief may be said to be the gospel of immortality and it consists of the knowledge of triple immortality. And Who else can be the best teacher of immortality than Death himself, as Nachiketas pointedly said? The first immortality is that of the physical existence and consciousness, the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name and formthis being in itself as expression and embodiment and instrument of the Inner Reality. This inner reality enshrines the second immortality the eternity and continuity of the soul's life through its incarnations in time, the divine Agni lit for ever and ever growing in flaming consciousness. And the third and final immortality is in the being and consciousness beyond time, beyond all relativities, the absolute and self-existent delight.
Rig Veda, X. 14-11, 12.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
it cannot be defined or figured in the terms of the phenomenal consciousness. In speaking of it, however, the Upanishads invariably and repeatedly refer to two attributes that characterise its fundamental nature. These two aspects have made such an impression upon the consciousness of the Upanishadic seer that his enthusiasm almost Wholly plays about them and is centred on them. When he contemplates or communes with the Supreme Object, these seem to him to be the mark of its au thenticity, the seal of its high status and the reason of all the charm and magic it possesses. The first aspect or attri bute is that of light the brilliance, the solar effulgenceravituly-arpa the bright, clear, shadow less Light of lightsvirajam ubhram jyotim jyoti The second aspect is that of delight, the bliss, the immortality inherent in that wide effulgencenandarpam amtam yad vibhti.
And what else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." And a thing of joy is a thing of light. Joy is the radiance rippling over a thing of beauty. Beauty is always radiant: the charm, the loveliness of an object is but the glow of light that it emanates. And it would not be a very incorrect mensuration to measure the degree of beauty by the degree of light radiated. The diamond is not only a thing of value, but a thing of beauty also, because of the concentrated and undimmed light that it enshrines within itself. A dark, dull and dismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aesthetically precious and significant as soon as the artist presents it in terms of the values of light. The entire art of painting is nothing but the expression of beauty, in and through the modalities of light.
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like a fire Whose light of flame is gone,
or,
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Be Wholly fixed on That, like an arrow on its target,
or again,
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Art at its highest tends to become also the simplest and the most unconventional; and it is then the highest art, precisely because it does not aim at being artistic. The aesthetic motive is totally absent in the Upanishads; the sense of beauty is there, but it is attendant upon and involved in a deeper strand of consciousness. That consciousness seeks consciousness itself, the fullness of consciousness, the awareness and possession of the Truth and Reality,the one thing which, if known, gives the knowledge of all else. And this consciousness of the Truth is also Delight, the perfect Bliss, the Immortality where the Whole universe resolves itself into its original state of rasa, that is to say, of essential and inalienable harmony and beauty.
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00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
'Kavi' is an invariable epithet of the gods. The Vedas mean by this attribute to bring out a most fundamental character, an inalienable dharma of the heavenly host. All the gods are poets; and a human being can become a poet only in so far as he attains to the nature and status of a god. Who is then a kavi? The Poet is he Who by his poetic power raises forms of beauty in heavenkavi kavitv divi rpam sajat.1Thus the essence of poetic power is to fashion divine Beauty, to reveal heavenly forms. What is this Heaven Whose forms the Poet discovers and embodies? HeavenDyaushas a very definite connotation in the Veda. It means the luminous or divine Mind 2the mind purified of its obscurity and limitations, due to subjection to the external senses, thus opening to the higher Light, receiving and recording faithfully the deeper and vaster movements and vibrations of the Truth, giving them a form, a perfect body of the right thought and the right word. Indra is the lord of this world and he can be approached only with an enkindled intelligence, ddhay man,3a faultless understanding, sumedh. He is the supreme Artisan of the poetic power,Tash, the maker of perfect forms, surpa ktnum.4 All the gods turn towards Indra and become gods and poets, attain their Great Names of Supreme Beauty.5 Indra is also the master of the senses, indriyas, Who are his hosts. It is through this mind and the senses that the poetic creation has to be manifested. The mind spreads out wide the Poet's weaving;6 the poet is the priest Who calls down and works out the right thinking in the sacrificial labour of creation.7 But that creation is made in and through the inner mind and the inner senses that are alive to the subtle formation of a vaster knowledge.8 The poet envisages the golden forms fashioned out of the very profundity of the consciousness.9 For the substance, the material on which the Poet works, is Truth. The seat of the Truth the poets guard, they uphold the supreme secret Names.10 The poet has the expressive utterance, the creative word; the poet is a poet by his poetic creation-the shape faultlessly wrought out that unveils and holds the Truth.11The form of beauty is the body of the Truth.
The poet is a trinity in himself. A triune consciousness forms his personality. First of all, he is the Knower-the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara. He has the direct vision, the luminous intelligence, the immediate perception.12 A subtle and profound and penetrating consciousness is his,nigam, pracetas; his is the eye of the Sun,srya caku.13 He secures an increased being through his effulgent understanding.14 In the second place, the Poet is not only Seer but Doer; he is knower as well as creator. He has a dynamic knowledge and his vision itself is power, ncak;15 he is the Seer-Will,kavikratu.16 He has the blazing radiance of the Sun and is supremely potent in his self-Iuminousness.17 The Sun is the light and the energy of the Truth. Even like the Sun the Poet gives birth to the Truth, srya satyasava, satyya satyaprasavya. But the Poet as Power is not only the revealer or creator,savit, he is also the builder or fashioner,ta, and he is the organiser,vedh is personality. First of all, he is the Knower-the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara, of the Truth.18 As Savita he manifests the Truth, as Tashta he gives a perfected body and form to the Truth, and as Vedha he maintains the Truth in its dynamic working. The effective marshalling and organisation of the Truth is what is called Ritam, the Right; it is also called Dharma,19 the Law or the Rhythm, the ordered movement and invincible execution of the Truth. The Poet pursues the Path of the Right;20 it is he Who lays out the Path for the march of the Truth, the progress of the Sacrifice.21 He is like a fast steed well-yoked, pressing forward;22 he is the charger that moves straight and unswerving and carries us beyond 23into the world of felicity.
Indeed delight is the third and the supremely intimate element of the poetic personality. Dear and delightful is the poet, dear and delightful his works, priya, priyi His hand is dripping with sweetness,kavir hi madhuhastya.24 The Poet-God shines in his pristine beauty and is showering delight.25 He is filled with utter ecstasy so that he may rise to the very source of the luminous Energy.26? Pure is the Divine Joy and it enters and purifies all forms as it moves to the seat of the Immortals.27Indeed this sparkling Delight is the Poet-Seer and it is that that brings forth the creative word, the utterance of Indra.28
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The Vedic term Kavi means literally 'a seer', 'one Who has the vision', as the word 'poet' means etymologically 'a doer', 'a creator'. I have combined the two senses to equate the terms and bring out the meaning involved in their more current acceptation.
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0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
For this reason I am especially pleased to be writing an introduction to a new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates. I feel that never, perhaps, was the need more urgent for just such a roadmap as the Qabalistic system provides. It should be equally useful to any Who chooses to follow it, whether he be Jew, Christian or Buddhist, Deist, Theosophist, agnostic or atheist.
The Qabalah is a trustworthy guide, leading to a comprehension both of the Universe and one's own Self. Sages have long taught that Man is a miniature of the Universe, containing within himself the diverse elements of that macrocosm of which he is the microcosm. Within the Qabalah is a glyph called the Tree of Life which is at once a symbolic map of the Universe in its major aspects, and also of its smaller counterpart, Man.
Manly P. Hall, in The Secret Teachings of All Ages, deplores the failure of modern science to "sense the profundity of these philosophical deductions of the ancients." Were they to do so, he says, they "would realize those Who fabricated the structure of the Qabalah possessed a knowledge of the celestial plan comparable in every respect with that of the modern savant."
Fortunately many scientists in the field of psycho therapy are beginning to sense this correlation. In Francis G. Wickes' The Inner World of Choice reference is made to "the existence in every person of a galaxy of potentialities for growth marked by a succession of personalogical evolution and interaction with environments." She points out that man is not only an individual particle but "also a part of the human stream, governed by a Self greater than his own individual self."
The Book of the Law states simply, "Every man and every woman is a star." This is a startling thought for those Who considered a star a heavenly body, but a declaration subject to proof by anyone Who will venture into the realm of his own Unconscious. This realm, he will learn if he persists, is not hemmed in by the boundaries of his physical body but is one with the boundless reaches of outer space.
Those Who, armed with the tools provided by the Qabalah, have made the journey within and crossed beyond the barriers of illusion, have returned with an impressive quantity of knowledge which conforms strictly to the definition of "science" in Winston's College Dictionary: "Science: a body of knowledge, general truths of particular facts, obtained and shown to be correct by accurate observation and thinking; knowledge condensed, arranged and systematized with reference to general truths and laws."
Over and over their findings have been confirmed, proving the Qabalah contains within it not only the elements of the science itself but the method with which to pursue it.
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A good many attri butions in other symbolic areas, I feel are subject to the same criticism. The Egyptian Gods have been used with a good deal of carelessness, and without sufficient explanation of motives in assigning them as I did. In a recent edition of Crowley's masterpiece Liber 777 (which au fond is less a reflection of Crowley's mind as a recent critic claimed than a tabulation of some of the material given piecemeal in the Golden Dawn knowledge lectures), he gives for the first time brief explanations of the motives for his attri butions. I too should have been far more explicit in the explanations I used in the case of some of the Gods Whose names were used many times, most inadequately, where several paths were concerned. While it is true that the religious coloring of the Egyptian Gods differed from time to time during Egypt's turbulent history, nonetheless a word or two about just that one single point could have served a useful purpose.
Some of the passages in the book force me today to emphasize that so far as the Qabalah is concerned, it could and should be employed without binding to it the partisan qualities of any one particular religious faith. This goes as much for Judaism as it does for Christianity. Neither has much intrinsic usefulness where this scientific scheme is concerned. If some students feel hurt by this statement, that cannot be helped. The day of most contemporary faiths is over; they have been more of a curse than a boon to mankind. Nothing that I say here, however, should reflect on the peoples concerned, those Who accept these religions. They are merely unfortunate. The religion itself is worn out and indeed is dying.
The Qabalah has nothing to do with any of them. Attempts on the part of cultish-partisans to impart higher mystical meanings, through the Qabalah, etc., to their now sterile faiths is futile, and will be seen as such by the younger generation. They, the flower and love children, will have none of this nonsense.
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By the middle of 1926 I had become aware of the work of Aleister Crowley, for Whom I have a tremendous respect. I studied as many of his writings as I could gain access to, making copious notes, and later acted for several years as his secretary, having joined him in Paris on October 12, 1928, a memorable day in my life.
All sorts of books have been written on the Qabalah, some poor, some few others extremely good. But I came to feel the need for what might be called a sort of Berlitz handbook, a concise but comprehensive introduction, studded with diagrams and tables of easily understood definitions and correspondences to simplify the student's grasp of so complicated and abstruse a subject.
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Prior to the closing down of the Mandrake Press in London about 1930-31, I was employed as company secretary for a while. Along with several Crowley books, the Mandrake Press published a lovely little monogram by D. H. Lawrence entitled "Apropos of Lady Chatterley's Lover." My own copy accompanied me on my travels for long years. Only recently did I discover that it had been lost. I hope that any one of my former patients Who had borrowed it will see fit to return it to me forthwith.
The last chapter of A Garden deals with the Way of Return. It used almost entirely Crowley's concept of the Path as described in his superb essay "One Star in Sight." In addition to this, I borrowed extensively from Lawrence's Apropos. Somehow, they all fitted together very nicely. In time, all these variegated notes were incorporated into the text without acknowledgment, an oversight which I now feel sure would be forgiven, since I was only twenty-four at the time.
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The importance of the book to me was and is five-fold. 1) It provided a yardstick by which to measure my personal progress in the understanding of the Qabalah. 2) Therefore it can have an equivalent value to the modern student. 3) It serves as a theoretical introduction to the Qabalistic foundation of the magical work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 4) It throws considerable light on the occasionally obscure writings of Aleister Crowley. 5) It is dedicated to Crowley, Who was the Ankh-af-na-Khonsu mentioned in The Book of the Law -a dedication which served both as a token of personal loyalty and devotion to Crowley, but was also a gesture of my spiritual independence from him.
In his profound investigation into the origins and basic nature of man, Robert Ardrey in African Genesis recently made a shocking statement. Although man has begun the conquest of outer space, the ignorance of his own nature, says Ardrey, "has become institutionalized, universalized and sanctified." He further states that were a brotherhood of man to be formed today, "its only possible common bond would be ignorance of what man is."
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May everyone Who reads this new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates be encouraged and inspired to light his own candle of inner vision and begin his journey into the boundless space that lies within himself. Then, through realization of his true identity, each student can become a lamp unto his own path. And more. Awareness of the Truth of his being will rip asunder the veil of unknowing that has heretofore enshrouded the star he already is, permitting the brilliance of his light to illumine the darkness of that part of the Universe in which he abides.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
capability in mathematical multiplication and division opened up a Whole new field
of safely anticipated structural engineering and navigation.
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monarchs and merchants realized that, within that closed system, Whoever
commanded the line of most efficient high seas supply would become the masters
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life support, but since there are others Who disagree diametrically about the best
method of coping, it can be determined only by force of arms which system is the
--
"specialists" for exploitation by the supranational powers Who divide to conquer
and divide to keep conquered.
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provided for rearrangements of atomic interpositioning Whose metallic alloying and
chemical structuring produces ever more powerful and incisive performances perpound of physical matter employed.
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design and fabricate air-enclosing wooden vessels Whose structure and space
enclosure combined to produce highly successful wooden vessels of the sea that
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language of science. The people Who make up that 99 percent do not know that all
that science has ever found out is that the Universe consists of the most reliable
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of Whole systems unpredicted by any part of the system as considered only
separately. The eternally regenerative Universe is synergetic. Humans have been
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
SRI RAMAKRISHNA, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kamarpukur. This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the last century the idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengal. Situated far from the railway, it was untouched by the glamour of the city. It contained rice-fields, tall palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard dedicated by a neighbouring zemindar to the public use was frequented by the boys for their noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great temple of Jagannath at Puri, and the villagers, most of Whom were farmers and craftsmen, entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. The dull round of the rural life was broken by lively festivals, the observance of sacred days, religious singing, and other innocent pleasures.
About his parents Sri Ramakrishna once said: "My mother was the personification of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about the ways of the world; innocent of the art of concealment, she would say what was in her mind. People loved her for her open-heartedness. My father, an orthodox brahmin, never accepted gifts from the sudras. He spent much of his time in worship and meditation, and in repeating God's name and chanting His glories. Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess Gayatri, his chest flushed and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his leisure hours making garlands for the Family Deity, Raghuvir."
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Ten years after his coming to Kamarpukur, Khudiram made a pilgrimage on foot to Rameswar, at the southern extremity of India. Two years later was born his second son, Whom he named Rameswar. Again in 1835, at the age of sixty, he made a pilgrimage, this time to Gaya. Here, from ancient times, Hindus have come from the four corners of India to discharge their duties to their departed ancestors by offering them food and drink at the sacred footprint of the Lord Vishnu. At this holy place Khudiram had a dream in which the Lord Vishnu promised to he born as his son. And Chandra Devi, too, in front of the Siva temple at Kamarpukur, had a vision indicating the birth of a divine child. Upon his return the husband found that she had conceived.
It was on February 18, 1836, that the child, to be known afterwards as Ramakrishna, was born. In memory of the dream at Gaya he was given the name of Gadadhar, the "Bearer of the Mace", an epithet of Vishnu. Three years later a little sister was born.
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At the age of six or seven Gadadhar had his first experience of spiritual ecstasy. One day in June or July, when he was walking along a narrow path between paddy-fields, eating the puffed rice that he carried in a basket, he looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful, dark thunder-cloud. As it spread, rapidly enveloping the Whole sky, a flight of snow-white cranes passed in front of it. The beauty of the contrast overwhelmed the boy. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and the puffed rice went in all directions. Some villagers found him and carried him home in their arms. Gadadhar said later that in that state he had experienced an indescribable joy.
Gadadhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that life on earth was impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango orchard or into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed in his own thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the discharge of her household duties. He gave more attention to reading and hearing the religious stories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims Who would stop at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. These holy men, the custodians of India's spiritual heritage and the living witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the world and all-absorbing love of God, entertained the little boy with stories from the Hindu epics, stories of saints and prophets, and also stories of their own adventures. He, on his part, fetched their water and fuel and
served them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was observing their meditation and worship.
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About this time, on the Sivaratri night, consecrated to the worship of Siva, a dramatic performance was arranged. The principal actor, Who was to play the part of Siva, suddenly fell ill, and Gadadhar was persuaded to act in his place. While friends were dressing him for the role of Siva — smearing his body with ashes, matting his locks, placing a trident in his hand and a string of rudraksha beads around his neck — the boy appeared to become absent-minded. He approached the stage with slow and measured step, supported by his friends. He looked the living image of Siva. The audience loudly applauded what it took to be his skill as an actor, but it was soon discovered that he was really lost in meditation. His countenance was radiant and tears flowed from his eyes. He was lost to the outer world. The effect of this scene on the audience was tremendous. The people felt blessed as by a vision of Siva Himself. The performance had to be stopped, and the boy's mood lasted till the following morning.
Gadadhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young friends. The stage was set in the mango orchard. The themes were selected from the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the roles, having heard them from professional actors. His favourite theme was the Vrindavan episode of Krishna's life, depicting those exquisite love-stories of Krishna and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys. Gadadhar would play the parts of Radha or Krishna and would often lose himself in the character he was portraying. His natural feminine grace heightened the dramatic effect. The mango orchard would ring with the loud kirtan of the boys. Lost in song and merry-making, Gadadhar became indifferent to the routine of school.
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At the age of sixteen Gadadhar was summoned to Calcutta by his elder brother Ramkumar, Who wished assistance in his priestly duties. Ramkumar had opened a Sanskrit academy to supplement his income, and it was his intention gradually to turn his younger brother's mind to education. Gadadhar applied himself heart and soul to his new duty as family priest to a number of Calcutta families. His worship was very different from that of the professional priests. He spent hours decorating the images and singing hymns and devotional songs; he performed with love the other duties of his office. People were impressed with his ardour. But to his studies he paid scant attention.
Ramkumar did not at first oppose the ways of his temperamental brother. He wanted Gadadhar to become used to the conditions of city life. But one day he decided to warn the boy about his indifference to the world. After all, in the near future Gadadhar must, as a householder, earn his livelihood through the performance of his brahminical duties; and these required a thorough knowledge of Hindu law, astrology, and kindred subjects. He gently admonished Gadadhar and asked him to pay more attention to his studies. But the boy replied spiritedly: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education? I would rather acquire that wisdom which will illumine my heart and give me satisfaction for ever."
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The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression through these passionate words of the young Gadadhar. For what did his unsophisticated eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India and the centre of modem culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in the higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices were merely outer forms from which the soul had long ago departed. Gadadhar had never seen anything like this at Kamarpukur among the simple and pious villagers. The sadhus and wandering monks Whom he had served in his boyhood had revealed to him an altogether different India. He had been impressed by their devotion and purity, their self-control and renunciation. He had learnt from them and from his own intuition that the ideal of life as taught by the ancient sages of India was the realization of God.
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All demonstrated that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
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The Christian missionaries gave the finishing touch to the process of transformation. They ridiculed as relics of a barbarous age the images and rituals of the Hindu religion. They tried to persuade India that the teachings of her saints and seers were the cause of her downfall, that her Vedas, Puranas, and other scriptures were filled with superstition. Christianity, they maintained, had given the white races position and power in this world and assurance of happiness in the next; therefore Christianity was the best of all religions. Many intelligent young Hindus became converted. The man in the street was confused. The majority of the educated grew materialistic in their mental outlook. Everyone living near Calcutta or the other strong-holds of Western culture, even those Who attempted to cling to the orthodox traditions of Hindu society, became infected by the new uncertainties and the new beliefs.
But the soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening. We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited retort of the young Gadadhar: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?"
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The Whole symbolic world is represented in the temple garden — the Trinity of the Nature Mother (Kali), the Absolute (Siva), and Love (Radhakanta), the Arch spanning heaven and earth. The terrific Goddess of the Tantra, the soul-enthralling Flute-Player of the Bhagavata, and the Self-absorbed Absolute of the Vedas live together, creating the greatest synthesis of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of this divine household, Kali is the pivot, the sovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something greater and deeper still for those Who have eyes to see. She is the Universal Mother, "my Mother" as Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, Who reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine Incarnations, the Visible God, Who leads the elect to the Invisible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego from created beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite ego loses itself in the illimitable Ego — Atman — Brahman". (Romain Holland, Prophets of the New India, p. 11.)
Rani Rasmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and another fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31, 1855.
Sri Ramakrishna — henceforth we shall call Gadadhar by this familiar name —1 came to the temple garden with his elder brother Ramkumar, Who was appointed priest of the Kali temple. Sri Ramakrishna did not at first approve of Ramkumar's working for the sudra Rasmani. The example of their orthodox father was still fresh in Sri Ramakrishna's mind. He objected also to the eating of the cooked offerings of the temple, since, according to orthodox Hindu custom, such food can be offered to the Deity only in the house of a brahmin. But the holy atmosphere of the temple grounds, the solitude of the surrounding wood, the loving care of his brother, the respect shown him by Rani Rasmani and Mathur Babu, the living presence of the Goddess Kali in the temple, and; above all, the proximity of the sacred Ganges, which Sri Ramakrishna always held in the highest respect, gradually overcame his disapproval, and he began to feel at home.
Within a very short time Sri Ramakrishna attracted the notice of Mathur Babu, Who was impressed by the young man's religious fervour and wanted him to participate in the worship in the Kali temple. But Sri Ramakrishna loved his freedom and was indifferent to any worldly career. The profession of the priesthood in a temple founded by a rich woman did not appeal to his mind. Further, he hesitated to take upon himself the responsibility for the ornaments and jewelry of the temple. Mathur had to wait for a suitable occasion.
At this time there came to Dakshineswar a youth of sixteen, destined to play an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's life. Hriday, a distant nephew2 of Sri Ramakrishna, hailed from Sihore, a village not far from Kamarpukur, and had been his boyhood friend. Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind, he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He was destined to be a mute witness of many of the spiritual experiences of Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineswar in search of a job, and Sri Ramakrishna was glad to see him.
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Born in an orthodox brahmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities of worship, its rites and rituals. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion are the human aspects of the indescribable and incomprehensible Spirit, as conceived by the finite human mind. They understand and appreciate human love and emotion, help men to realize their secular and spiritual ideals, and ultimately enable men to attain liberation from the miseries of phenomenal life. The Source of light, intelligence, wisdom, and strength is the One alone from Whom comes the fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by his human limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use human symbols. Therefore Hinduism asks the devotees to look on God as the ideal father, the ideal mother, the ideal husband, the ideal son, or the ideal friend. But the name ultimately leads to the Nameless, the form to the Formless, the word to the Silence, the emotion to the serene realization of Peace in Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The gods gradually merge in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot dissociate human factors from his worship. Therefore the Deity is bathed and clothed and decked with ornaments. He is fed and put to sleep. He is propitiated with hymns, songs, and prayers. And there are appropriate rites connected with all these functions. For instance, to secure for himself external purity, the priest bathes himself in holy water and puts on a holy cloth. He purifies the mind and the sense-organs by appropriate meditations. He fortifies the place of worship against evil forces by drawing around it circles of fire and water. He awakens the different spiritual centres of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart. Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the Supreme Spirit is recalled from the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the Transcendental Reality with material articles — clothing That which pervades the Whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is disembodied and incorporeal, singing before That Whose glory the music of the spheres tries vainly to proclaim. But through these rites the devotee aspires to go ultimately beyond rites and rituals, forms and names, words and praise, and to realize God as the All-pervading Consciousness.
Hindu priests are thoroughly acquainted with the rites of worship, but few of them are aware of their underlying significance. They move their hands and limbs mechanically, in obedience to the letter of the scriptures, and repeat the holy mantras like parrots. But from the very beginning the inner meaning of these rites was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. As he sat facing the image, a strange transformation came over his mind. While going through the prescribed ceremonies, he would actually find himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him and the place of worship from unspiritual vibrations, or he would feel the rising of the mystic Kundalini through the different centres of the body. The glow on his face, his deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone Who saw him worship the Deity.
Ramkumar wanted Sri Ramakrishna to learn the intricate rituals of the worship of Kali. To become a priest of Kali one must undergo a special form of initiation from a qualified guru, and for Sri Ramakrishna a suitable brahmin was found. But no sooner did the brahmin speak the holy word in his ear than Sri Ramakrishna, overwhelmed with emotion, uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration.
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And, indeed, he soon discovered what a strange Goddess he had chosen to serve. He became gradually enmeshed in the web of Her all-pervading presence. To the ignorant She is, to be sure, the image of destruction; but he found in Her the benign, all-loving Mother. Her neck is encircled with a garland of heads, and Her waist with a girdle of human arms, and two of Her hands hold weapons of death, and Her eyes dart a glance of fire; but, strangely enough, Ramakrishna felt in Her breath the soothing touch of tender love and saw in Her the Seed of Immortality. She stands on the bosom of Her Consort, Siva; it is because She is the Sakti, the Power, inseparable from the Absolute. She is surrounded by jackals and other unholy creatures, the denizens of the cremation ground. But is not the Ultimate Reality above holiness and unholiness? She appears to be reeling under the spell of wine. But Who would create this mad world unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest symbol of all the forces of nature, the synthesis of their antinomies, the Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri Ramakrishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial shadow. Into Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She stood as the transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.
The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a living vision of the Mother of the Universe. He began to spend in meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for this purpose he selected an extremely solitary place. A deep jungle, thick with underbrush and prickly plants, lay to the north of the temples. Used at one time as a burial ground, it was shunned by people even during the day-time for fear of ghosts. There Sri Ramakrishna began to spend the Whole night in meditation, returning to his room only in the morning with eyes swollen as though from much weeping. While meditating, he would lay aside his cloth and his brahminical thread. Explaining this strange conduct, he once said to Hriday: "Don't you know that when one thinks of God one should be freed from all ties? From our very birth we have the eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste, and grief. The sacred thread reminds me that I am a brahmin and therefore superior to all. When calling on the Mother one has to set aside all such ideas." Hriday thought his uncle was becoming insane.
As his love for God deepened, he began either to forget or to drop the formalities of worship. Sitting before the image, he would spend hours singing the devotional songs of great devotees of the Mother, such as Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. Those rhapsodical songs, describing the direct vision of God, only intensified Sri Ramakrishna's longing. He felt the pangs of a child separated from its mother. Sometimes, in agony, he would rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he had lost his earthly mother, would sympathize with him in his grief. Sometimes, in moments of scepticism, he would cry: "Art Thou true, Mother, or is it all fiction — mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost exist, why do I not see Thee? Is religion a mere fantasy and art Thou only a figment of man's imagination?" Sometimes he would sit on the prayer carpet for two hours like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal manner
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Yet this was only a foretaste of the intense experiences to come. The first glimpse of the Divine Mother made him the more eager for Her uninterrupted vision. He wanted to see Her both in meditation and with eyes open. But the Mother began to play a teasing game of hide-and-seek with him, intensifying both his joy and his suffering. Weeping bitterly during the moments of separation from Her, he would pass into a trance and then find Her standing before him, smiling, talking, consoling, bidding him be of good cheer, and instructing him. During this period of spiritual practice he had many uncommon experiences. When he sat to meditate, he would hear strange clicking sounds in the joints of his legs, as if someone were locking them up, one after the other, to keep him motionless; and at the conclusion of his meditation he would again hear the same sounds, this time unlocking them and leaving him free to move about. He would see flashes like a swarm of fire-flies floating before his eyes, or a sea of deep mist around him, with luminous waves of molten silver. Again, from a sea of translucent mist he would behold the Mother rising, first Her feet, then Her waist, body, face, and head, finally Her Whole person; he would feel Her breath and hear Her voice. Worshipping in the temple, sometimes he would become exalted, sometimes he would remain motionless as stone, sometimes he would almost collapse from excessive emotion. Many of his actions, contrary to all tradition, seemed sacrilegious to the people. He would take a flower and touch it to his own head, body, and feet, and then offer it to the Goddess. Or, like a drunkard, he would reel to the throne of the Mother, touch Her chin by way of showing his affection for Her, and sing, talk, joke, laugh, and dance. Or he would take a morsel of food from the plate and hold it to Her mouth, begging Her to eat it, and would not be satisfied till he was convinced that She had really eaten. After the Mother had been put to sleep at night, from his own room he would hear Her ascending to the upper storey of the temple with the light steps of a happy girl, Her anklets jingling. Then he would discover Her standing with flowing hair. Her black form silhouetted against the sky of the night, looking at the Ganges or at the distant lights of Calcutta.
Naturally the temple officials took him for an insane person. His worldly well-wishers brought him to skilled physicians; but no-medicine could cure his malady. Many a time he doubted his sanity himself. For he had been sailing across an uncharted sea, with no earthly guide to direct him. His only haven of security was the Divine Mother Herself. To Her he would pray: "I do not know what these things are. I am ignorant of mantras and the scriptures. Teach me, Mother, how to realize Thee. Who else can help me? Art Thou not my only refuge and guide?" And the sustaining presence of the Mother never failed him in his distress or doubt. Even those Who criticized his conduct were greatly impressed with his purity, guilelessness, truthfulness, integrity, and holiness. They felt an uplifting influence in his presence.
It is said that samadhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the spiritual realm. Sri Ramakrishna felt an unquenchable desire to enjoy God in various ways. For his meditation he built a place in the northern wooded section of the temple garden. With Hriday's help he planted there five sacred trees. The spot, known as the Panchavati, became the scene of many of his visions.
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Sri Ramakrishna one day fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to Kali. This was too much for the manager of the temple garden, Who considered himself responsible for the proper conduct of the worship. He reported Sri Ramakrishna's insane behaviour to Mathur Babu.
Sri Ramakrishna has described the incident: "The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kali temple that it was She Who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness — all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss — the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kali temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother — even the cat. The manager of the temple garden wrote to Mathur Babu saying that I was feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine Mother. But Mathur Babu had insight into the state of my mind. He wrote back to the manager: 'Let him do whatever he likes. You must not say anything to him.'"
One of the painful ailments from which Sri Ramakrishna suffered at this time was a burning sensation in his body, and he was cured by a strange vision. During worship in the temple, following the scriptural injunctions, he would imagine the presence of the "sinner" in himself and the destruction of this "sinner". One day he was meditating in the Panchavati, when he saw come out of him a red-eyed man of black complexion, reeling like a drunkard. Soon there emerged from him another person, of serene countenance, wearing the ochre cloth of a sannyasi and carrying in his hand a trident. The second person attacked the first and killed him with the trident. Thereafter Sri Ramakrishna was free of his pain.
About this time he began to worship God by assuming the attitude of a servant toward his master. He imitated the mood of Hanuman, the monkey chieftain of the Ramayana, the ideal servant of Rama and traditional model for this self-effacing form of devotion. When he meditated on Hanuman his movements and his way of life began to resemble those of a monkey. His eyes became restless. He lived on fruits and roots. With his cloth tied around his waist, a portion of it hanging in the form of a tail, he jumped from place to place instead of walking. And after a short while he was blessed with a vision of Sita, the divine consort of Rama, Who entered his body and disappeared there with the words, "I bequeath to you my smile."
Mathur had faith in the sincerity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual zeal, but began now to doubt his sanity. He had watched him jumping about like a monkey. One day, when Rani Rasmani was listening to Sri Ramakrishna's singing in the temple, the young priest abruptly turned and slapped her. Apparently listening to his song, she had actually been thinking of a law-suit. She accepted the punishment as though the Divine Mother Herself had imposed it; but Mathur was distressed. He begged Sri Ramakrishna to keep his feelings under control and to heed the conventions of society. God Himself, he argued, follows laws. God never permitted, for instance, flowers of two colours to grow on the same stalk. The following day Sri Ramakrishna presented Mathur Babu with two hibiscus flowers growing on the same stalk, one red and one white.
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In 1858 there came to Dakshineswar a cousin of Sri Ramakrishna, Haladhari by name, Who was to remain there about eight years. On account of Sri Ramakrishna's indifferent health, Mathur appointed this man to the office of priest in the Kali temple. He was a complex character, versed in the letter of the scriptures, but hardly aware of their spirit. He loved to participate in hair-splitting theological discussions and, by the measure of his own erudition, he proceeded to gauge Sri Ramakrishna. An orthodox brahmin, he thoroughly disapproved of his cousin's unorthodox actions, but he was not unimpressed by Sri Ramakrishna's purity of life, ecstatic love of God, and yearning for realization.
One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
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Saradamani, a little girl of five, lived in the neighbouring village of Jayrambati. Even at this age she had been praying to God to make her character as stainless and fragrant as the white tuberose. Looking at the full moon, she would say: "O God, there are dark spots even on the moon. But make my character spotless." It was she Who was selected as the bride for Sri Ramakrishna.
The marriage ceremony was duly performed. Such early marriage in India is in the nature of a betrothal, the marriage being consummated when the girl attains puberty. But in this case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri Ramakrishna lived at Kamarpukur about a year and a half and then returned to Dakshineswar.
Hardly had he crossed the threshold of the Kali temple when he found himself again in the whirlwind. His madness reappeared tenfold. The same meditation and prayer, the same ecstatic moods, the same burning sensation, the same weeping, the same sleeplessness, the same indifference to the body and the outside world, the same divine delirium. He subjected himself to fresh disciplines in order to eradicate greed and lust, the two great impediments to spiritual progress. With a rupee in one hand and some earth in the other, he would reflect on the comparative value of these two for the realization of God, and finding them equally worthless he would toss them, with equal indifference, into the Ganges. Women he regarded as the manifestations of the Divine Mother. Never even in a dream did he feel the impulses of lust. And to root out of his mind the idea of caste superiority, he cleaned a pariahs house with his long and neglected hair. When he would sit in meditation, birds would perch on his head and peck in his hair for grains of food. Snakes would crawl over his body, and neither would be aware of the other. Sleep left him altogether. Day and night, visions flitted before him. He saw the sannyasi Who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again coming out of his body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him to concentrate on God. Or the same sannyasi would visit distant places, following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening there. Sri Ramakrishna used to say later that in the case of an advanced devotee the mind itself becomes the guru, living and moving like an embodied being.
Rani Rasmani, the foundress of the temple garden, passed away in 1861. After her death her son-in-law Mathur became the sole executor of the estate. He placed himself and his resources at the disposal of Sri Ramakrishna and began to look after his physical comfort. Sri Ramakrishna later spoke of him as one of his five "suppliers of stores" appointed by the Divine Mother. Whenever a desire arose in his mind, Mathur fulfilled it without hesitation.
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There came to Dakshineswar at this time a brahmin woman Who was to play an important part in Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual unfoldment. Born in East Bengal, she was an adept in the Tantrik and Vaishnava methods of worship. She was slightly over fifty years of age, handsome, and garbed in the orange robe of a nun. Her sole possessions were a few books and two pieces of wearing-cloth.
Sri Ramakrishna welcomed the visitor with great respect, described to her his experiences and visions, and told her of people's belief that these were symptoms of madness. She listened to him attentively and said: "My son, everyone in this world is mad. Some are mad for money, some for creature comforts, some for name and fame; and you are mad for God." She assured him that he was passing through the almost unknown spiritual experience described in the scriptures as mahabhava, the most exalted rapture of divine love. She told him that this extreme exaltation had been described as manifesting itself through nineteen physical symptoms, including the shedding of tears, a tremor of the body, horripilation, perspiration, and a burning sensation. The Bhakti scriptures, she declared, had recorded only two instances of the experience, namely, those of Sri Radha and Sri Chaitanya.
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When Sri Ramakrishna told Mathur what the Brahmani had said about him, Mathur shook his head in doubt. He was reluctant to accept him as an Incarnation of God, an Avatar comparable to Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Chaitanya, though he admitted Sri Ramakrishna's extraordinary spirituality. Whereupon the Brahmani asked Mathur to arrange a conference of scholars Who should discuss the matter with her. He agreed to the proposal and the meeting was arranged. It was to be held in the natmandir in front of the Kali temple.
Two famous pundits of the time were invited: Vaishnavcharan, the leader of the Vaishnava society, and Gauri. The first to arrive was Vaishnavcharan, with a distinguished company of scholars and devotees. The Brahmani, like a proud mother, proclaimed her view before him and supported it with quotations from the scriptures. As the pundits discussed the deep theological question, Sri Ramakrishna, perfectly indifferent to everything happening around him, sat in their midst like a child, immersed in his own thoughts, sometimes smiling, sometimes chewing a pinch of spices from a pouch, or again saying to Vaishnavcharan with a nudge: "Look here. Sometimes I feel like this, too." Presently Vaishnavcharan arose to declare himself in total agreement with the view of the Brahmani. He declared that Sri Ramakrishna had undoubtedly experienced mahabhava and that this was the certain sign of the rare manifestation of God in a man. The people assembled
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Gauri said: "I feel it in my heart and I have the scriptures on my side. I am ready to prove it to anyone Who challenges me."
"Well," Sri Ramakrishna said, "it is you Who say so; but, believe me, I know nothing about it."
Thus the insane priest was by verdict of the great scholars of the day proclaimed a Divine Incarnation. His visions were not the result of an over-heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual history. And how did the proclamation affect Sri Ramakrishna himself? He remained the simple child of the Mother that he had been since the first day of his life. Years later, when two of his householder disciples openly spoke of him as a Divine Incarnation and the matter was reported to him, he said with a touch of sarcasm: "Do they think they will enhance my glory that way? One of them is an actor on the stage and the other a physician. What do they know about Incarnations? Why, years ago pundits like Gauri and Vaishnavcharan declared me to be an Avatar. They were great scholars and knew what they said. But that did not make any change in my mind."
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Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brahmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound. He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result promised in any one of them. After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into samadhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal" lost its meaning. The Whole world and everything in it appeared as the lila, the sport, of Siva and Sakti. He beheld held everywhere manifest the power and beauty of the Mother; the Whole world, animate and inanimate, appeared to him as pervaded with Chit, Consciousness, and with Ananda, Bliss.
He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anahata Sabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight supernatural powers of yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging from the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws, and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
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After completing the Tantrik sadhana Sri Ramakrishna followed the Brahmani in the disciplines of Vaishnavism. The Vaishnavas are worshippers of Vishnu, the "All-pervading", the Supreme God, Who is also known as Hari and Narayana. Of Vishnu's various Incarnations the two with the largest number of followers are Rama and Krishna.
Vaishnavism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. Bhakti is intense love of God, attachment to Him alone; it is of the nature of bliss and bestows upon the lover immortality and liberation. God, according to Vaishnavism, cannot be realized through logic or reason; and, without bhakti, all penances, austerities and rites are futile. Man cannot realize God by self-exertion alone. For the vision of God His grace is absolutely necessary, and this grace is felt by the pure of heart. The mind is to be purified through bhakti. The pure mind then remains for ever immersed in the ecstasy of God-vision. It is the cultivation of this divine love that is the chief concern of the Vaishnava religion.
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To develop the devotee's love for God, Vaishnavism humanizes God. God is to be regarded as the devotee's Parent, Master, Friend, Child, Husband, or Sweetheart, each succeeding relationship representing an intensification of love. These bhavas, or attitudes toward God, are known as santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhur. The rishis of the Vedas, Hanuman, the cow-herd boys of Vrindavan, Rama's mother Kausalya, and Radhika, Krishna's sweetheart, exhibited, respectively, the most perfect examples of these forms. In the ascending scale the-glories of God are gradually forgotten and the devotee realizes more and more the intimacy of divine communion. Finally he regards himself as the mistress of his Beloved, and no artificial barrier remains to separate him from his Ideal. No social or moral obligation can bind to the earth his soaring spirit. He experiences perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedantist, Who strives to transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the Vaishnava path wishes to retain both his own individuality and the personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
While practising the discipline of the madhur bhava, the male devotee often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form of love for Sri Krishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. This assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven from the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may be utilized for the subjugation of the lower desires and the development of the spiritual nature. Now, the idea which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be made to give way to another higher idea, namely, that he is neither man nor woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. The Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest est realization of the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.
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About the year 1864 there came to Dakshineswar a wandering Vaishnava monk, Jatadhari, Whose Ideal Deity was Rama. He always carried with him a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of Ramlala, the Boy Rama. Toward this little image he displayed the tender affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rama. As a result of lifelong spiritual practice he had actually found in the metal image the presence of his Ideal. Ramlala was no longer for him a metal image, but the living God. He devoted himself to nursing Rama, feeding Rama, playing with Rama, taking Rama for a walk, and bathing Rama. And he found that the image responded to his love.
Sri Ramakrishna, much impressed with his devotion, requested Jatadhari to spend a few days at Dakshineswar. Soon Ramlala became the favourite companion of Sri Ramakrishna too. Later on he described to the devotees how the little image would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back, insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers from the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy. A very sweet relationship sprang up between him and Ramlala, for Whom he felt the love of a mother.
One day Jatadhari requested Sri Ramakrishna to keep the image and bade him adieu with tearful eyes. He declared that Ramlala had fulfilled his innermost prayer and that he now had no more need of formal worship. A few days later Sri Ramakrishna was blessed through Ramlala with a vision of Ramachandra, whereby he realized that the Rama of the Ramayana, the son of Dasaratha, pervades the Whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness; that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
While worshipping Ramlala as the Divine Child, Sri Ramakrishna's heart became filled with motherly tenderness, and he began to regard himself as a woman. His speech and gestures changed. He began to move freely with the ladies of Mathur's family, Who now looked upon him as one of their own sex. During this time he worshipped the Divine Mother as Her companion or handmaid.
--- IN COMMUNION WITH THE DIVINE BELOVED
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Now one with Radha, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the mahabhava, which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna said: "The manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, mahabhava. An ordinary man takes a Whole lifetime to express even a single one of these. But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
The love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. The enchanting ing form of Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the worship of the Personal God. He drank from the fountain of Immortal Bliss. The agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
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The Brahmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. The Brahmani, on Whom he had depended for, three years, saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. The new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totapuri, Whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the "Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and attachments, including even a piece of wearing cloth.
Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy, Whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in his own life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God
is, ultimately speaking, as illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains his liberation, therefore, by piercing the veil of maya and rediscovering his total identity with Brahman. Knowing himself to be one with the Universal Spirit, he realizes ineffable Peace. Only then does he go beyond the fiction of birth and death; only then does he become immortal. 'And this is the ultimate goal of all religions — to dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own ignorance.
The path of the Vedantic discipline is the path of negation, "neti", in which, by stern determination, all that is unreal is both negated and renounced. It is the path of jnana, knowledge, the direct method of realizing the Absolute. After the negation of everything relative, including the discriminating ego itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bliss of nirvikalpa samadhi, where subject and object are alike dissolved. The soul goes beyond the realm of thought. The domain of duality is transcended. Maya is left behind with all its changes and modifications. The Real Man towers above the delusions of creation, preservation, and destruction. An avalanche of indescribable Bliss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure, good and evil. There shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Knower, knowledge, and known are dissolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and death vanish in infinite Existence. All doubts and misgivings are quelled for ever; the oscillations of the mind are stopped; the momentum of past actions is exhausted. Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made its abode for untold ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state. Space disappears into nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation becomes a dream of the past. Only Existence is. Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the Self?
Even when man descends from this dizzy height, he is devoid of ideas of "I" and "mine"; he looks on the body as a mere shadow, an outer sheath encasing the soul. He does not dwell on the past, takes no thought for the future, and looks with indifference on the present. He surveys everything in the world with an eye of equality; he is no longer touched by the infinite variety of phenomena; he no longer reacts to pleasure and pain. He remains unmoved whether he — that is to say, his body — is worshipped by the good or tormented by the wicked; for he realizes that it is the one Brahman that manifests Itself through everything. The impact of such an experience devastates the body and mind. Consciousness becomes blasted, as it were, with an excess of Light. In the Vedanta books it is said that after the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi the body drops off like a dry leaf. Only those Who are born with a special mission for the world can return
from this height to the valleys of normal life. They live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.
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Totapuri, discovering at once that Sri Ramakrishna was prepared to be a student of Vedanta, asked to initiate him into its mysteries. With the permission of the Divine Mother, Sri Ramakrishna agreed to the proposal. But Totapuri explained that only a sannyasi could receive the teaching of Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna agreed to renounce the world, but with the stipulation that the ceremony of his initiation into the monastic order be performed in secret, to spare the feelings of his old mother, Who had been living with him at Dakshineswar.
On the appointed day, in the small hours of the morning, a fire was lighted in the Panchavati. Totapuri and Sri Ramakrishna sat before it. The flame played on their faces. "Ramakrishna was a small brown man with a short beard and beautiful eyes, long dark eyes, full of light, obliquely set and slightly veiled, never very wide open, but seeing half-closed a great distance both outwardly and inwardly. His mouth was open over his white teeth in a bewitching smile, at once affectionate and mischievous. Of medium height, he was thin to emaciation and extremely delicate. His temperament was high-strung, for he was supersensitive to all the winds of joy and sorrow, both moral and physical. He was indeed a living reflection of all that happened before the mirror of his eyes, a two-sided mirror, turned both out and in." (Romain Rolland, Prophets of the New India, pp. 38-9.) Facing him, the other rose like a rock. He was very tall and robust, a sturdy and tough oak. His constitution and mind were of iron. He was the strong leader of men.
In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs, ego, and the world. The leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate free and pure. The sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the fire, completing his severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, Who were only manifestations of his own Self. The rites completed, the disciple received from the guru the loin-cloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new life.
The teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of Vedanta.
"Brahman", he said, "is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation. Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power of maya, that enchantress Who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really One and undivided. When a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of maya. Whatever is within the domain of maya is unreal. Give it up. Destroy the prison-house of name and form and rush out of it with the strength of a lion. Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through samadhi. You will find the world of name and form vanishing into void, and the puny ego dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute." Quoting the Upanishad, Totapuri said: "That knowledge is shallow by which one sees or hears or knows another
. What is shallow is worthless and can never give real felicity. But the Knowledge by which one does not see another or hear another or know another, which is beyond duality, is great, and through such Knowledge one attains the Infinite Bliss. How can the mind and senses grasp That which shines in the heart of all as the Eternal Subject?"
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Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting maya, like an orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative life. He was all love and reverence for maya, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him maya itself was God, for everything was God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory of the Divine Immanence. Maya, the mighty weaver of the garb, is none other than Kali, the Divine Mother. She is the primordial Divine Energy, Sakti, and She can no more be distinguished from the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be distinguished from fire. She projects the world and again withdraws it. She spins it as the spider spins its web. She is the Mother of the Universe, identical with the Brahman of Vedanta, and with the Atman of Yoga. As eternal Lawgiver, She makes and unmakes laws; it is by Her imperious will that karma yields its fruit. She ensnares men with illusion and again releases them from bondage with a look of Her benign eyes. She is the supreme Mistress of the cosmic play, and all objects, animate and inanimate, dance by Her will. Even those Who realize the Absolute in nirvikalpa samadhi are under Her jurisdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished from before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya". Avidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
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His body would not have survived but for the kindly attention of a monk Who happened to be at Dakshineswar at that time and Who somehow realized that for the good of humanity Sri Ramakrishna's body must be preserved. He tried various means, even physical violence, to recall the fleeing soul to the prison-house of the body, and during the resultant fleeting moments of consciousness he would push a few morsels of food down Sri Ramakrishna's throat. Presently Sri Ramakrishna received the command of the Divine Mother to remain on the threshold of relative consciousness. Soon there-after after he was afflicted with a serious attack of dysentery. Day and night the pain tortured him, and his mind gradually came down to the physical plane.
--- COMPANY OF HOLY MEN AND DEVOTEES
From now on Sri Ramakrishna began to seek the company of devotees and holy men. He had gone through the storm and stress of spiritual disciplines and visions. Now he realized an inner calmness and appeared to others as a normal person. But he could not bear the company of worldly people or listen to their talk. Fortunately the holy atmosphere of Dakshineswar and the liberality of Mathur attracted monks and holy men from all parts of the country. Sadhus of all denominations — monists and dualists, Vaishnavas and Vedantists, Saktas and worshippers of Rama — flocked there in ever increasing numbers. Ascetics and visionaries came to seek Sri Ramakrishna's advice. Vaishnavas had come during the period of his Vaishnava sadhana, and Tantriks when he practised the disciplines of Tantra. Vedantists began to arrive after the departure of Totapuri. In the room of Sri Ramakrishna, Who was then in bed with dysentery, the Vedantists engaged in scriptural discussions, and, forgetting his own physical suffering, he solved their doubts by referring directly to his own experiences. Many of the visitors were genuine spiritual souls, the unseen pillars of Hinduism, and their spiritual lives were quickened in no small measure by the sage of Dakshineswar. Sri Ramakrishna in turn learnt from them anecdotes concerning the ways and the conduct of holy men, which he subsequently narrated to his devotees and disciples. At his request Mathur provided him with large stores of food-stuffs, clothes, and so forth, for distribution among the wandering monks.
"Sri Ramakrishna had not read books, yet he possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of religions and religious philosophies. This he acquired from his contacts with innumerable holy men and scholars. He had a unique power of assimilation; through meditation he made this knowledge a part of his being. Once, when he was asked by a disciple about the source of his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, he replied; "I have not read; but I have heard the learned. I have made a garland of their knowledge, wearing it round my neck, and I have given it as an offering at the feet of the Mother."
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar Who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, another great pundit, Who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one Who had realized in life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, Who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human tongue. He understood that all religions lead their devotees by differing paths to one and the same goal. Now he became eager to explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant actual experience.
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Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul. The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, Who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, Who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, Who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankaras, Who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard to say that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshineswar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahavira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.
Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus realized the ideals of religions other than Hinduism. He did not need to follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love of God. So he became a Master Who could speak with authority regarding the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world. "I have practised", said he, "all religions — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity — and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward Whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion — Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He Who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well — the same Rama with a thousand names. A lake has several ghats. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at another the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal', but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him."
In 1867 Sri Ramakrishna returned to Kamarpukur to recuperate from the effect of his austerities. The peaceful countryside, the simple and artless companions of his boyhood, and the pure air did him much good. The villagers were happy to get back their playful, frank, witty, kind-hearted, and truthful Gadadhar, though they did not fail to notice the great change that had come over him during his years in Calcutta. His wife, Sarada Devi, now fourteen years old, soon arrived at Kamarpukur. Her spiritual development was much beyond her age and she was able to understand immediately her husband's state of mind. She became eager to learn from him about God and to live with him as his attendant. The Master accepted her cheerfully both as his disciple and as his spiritual companion. Referring to the experiences of these few days, she once said: "I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bliss were placed in my heart. The joy was indescribable."
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The party entered holy Benares by boat along the Ganges. When Sri Ramakrishna's eyes fell on this city of Siva, where had accumulated for ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to be made of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved. During his stay in the city he treated every particle of its earth with utmost respect. At the Manikarnika Ghat, the great cremation ground of the city, he actually saw Siva, with ash-covered body and tawny matted hair, serenely approaching each funeral pyre and breathing into the ears of the corpses the mantra of liberation; and then the Divine Mother removing from the dead their bonds. Thus he realized the significance of the scriptural statement that anyone dying in Benares attains salvation through the grace of Siva. He paid a visit to Trailanga Swami, the celebrated monk, Whom he later declared to be a real paramahamsa, a veritable image of Siva.
Sri Ramakrishna visited Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamuna, and then proceeded to Vrindavan and Mathura, hallowed by the legends, songs, and dramas about Krishna and the gopis. Here he had numerous visions and his heart overflowed with divine emotion. He wept and said: "O Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are absent." He visited the great woman saint, Gangamayi, regarded by Vaishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of Radha. She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri Ramakrishna as an incarnation of Radha. With great difficulty he was persuaded to leave her.
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The Master took up the duty of instructing his young wife, and this included everything from housekeeping to the Knowledge of Brahman. He taught her how to trim a lamp, how to behave toward people according to their differing temperaments, and how to conduct herself before visitors. He instructed her in the mysteries of spiritual life — prayer, meditation, japa, deep contemplation, and samadhi. The first lesson that Sarada Devi received was: "God is everybody's Beloved, just as the moon is dear to every child. Everyone has the same right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He reveals Himself to all Who call upon Him. You too will see Him if you but pray to Him."
Totapuri, coming to know of the Master's marriage, had once remarked: "What does it matter? He alone is firmly established in the Knowledge of Brahman Who can adhere to his spirit of discrimination and renunciation even while living with his wife. He alone has attained the supreme illumination Who can look on man and woman alike as Brahman. A man with the idea of sex may be a good aspirant, but he is still far from the goal." Sri Ramakrishna and his wife lived together at Dakshineswar, but their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after Sarada Devi's arrival Sri Ramakrishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a special worship of Kali, the Divine Mother. Instead of an image of the Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sarada Devi herself. The worshipper and the worshipped went into deep samadhi and in the transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri Ramakrishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, his rosary, and the fruit of his life-long sadhana. This is known in Tantra as the Shorasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakrishna realized the significance of the great statement of the Upanishad: "O Lord, Thou art the woman. Thou art the man; Thou art the boy. Thou art the girl; Thou art the old, tottering on their crutches. Thou pervadest the universe in its multiple forms."
By his marriage Sri Ramakrishna admitted the great value of marriage in man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to his monastic vows he demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and continence, in the realization of God. By this unique spiritual relationship with his wife he proved that husband and wife can live together as spiritual companions. Thus his life is a synthesis of the ways of life of the householder and the monk.
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In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the vijnani, the knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, Who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of vijnana, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child. In order to enable the Master to work for the welfare of humanity, the Divine Mother had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described — according to his mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred to this ego as the "ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as the "unripe" or "green" ego. The ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives, possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world to be unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this "ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day, while stroking his feet, Sarada Devi asked the Master, "What do you think of me?" Quick came the answer: "The Mother Who is worshipped in the temple is the mother Who has given birth to my body and is now living in the nahabat, and it is She again Who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mother Kali."
Sarada Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences. She said: "I have no words to describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in samadhi. This would continue throughout the night. There was such an extraordinary divine presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how the night would pass. Months went by in this way. Then one day he discovered that I had to keep awake the Whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go into samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me to sleep in the nahabat."
--- SUMMARY OF THE MASTER'S SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
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First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person, Whose spiritual experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it takes an ordinary man a Whole life's struggle to realize one or two phases of God, he had in a few years realized God in all His phases.
Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various disciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for his own liberation but were solely for the benefit of others. Thus the terms liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As long as there are beings Who consider themselves bound. God must come down to earth as an Incarnation to free them from bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any part of his district in which there is trouble.
Third, he came to foresee the time of his death. His words with respect to this matter were literally fulfilled.
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Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through him She should found a new Order, consisting of those Who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in his life.
Fourth, his spiritual insight told him that those Who were having their last birth on the mortal plane of existence and those Who had sincerely called on the Lord even once in their lives must come to him.
During this period Sri Ramakrishna suffered several bereavements. The first was the death of a nephew named Akshay. After the young man's death Sri Ramakrishna said: "Akshay died before my very eyes. But it did not affect me in the least. I stood by and watched a man die. It was like a sword being drawn from its scabbard. I enjoyed the scene, and laughed and sang and danced over it. They removed the body and cremated it. But the next day as I stood there (pointing to the southeast verandah of his room), I felt a racking pain for the loss of Akshay, as if somebody were squeezing my heart like a wet towel. I wondered at it and thought that the Mother was teaching me a lesson. I was not much concerned even with my own body — much less with a relative. But if such was my pain at the loss of a nephew, how much more must be the grief of the householders at the loss of their near and dear ones!" In 1871 Mathur died, and some five years later Sambhu Mallick — Who, after Mathur's passing away, had taken care of the Master's comfort. In 1873 died his elder brother Rameswar, and in 1876, his beloved mother. These bereavements left their imprint on the tender human heart of Sri Ramakrishna, albeit he had realized the immortality of the soul and the illusoriness of birth and death.
In March 1875, about a year before the death of his mother, the Master met Keshab Chandra Sen. The meeting was a momentous event for both Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab. Here the Master for the first time came into actual, contact with a worthy representative of modern India.
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Keshab was the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the two great movements that, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an important part in shaping the course of the renascence of India. The founder of the Brahmo movement had been the great Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833). Though born in an orthodox brahmin family, Rammohan Roy had shown great sympathy for Islam and Christianity. He had gone to Tibet in search of the Buddhist mysteries. He had extracted from Christianity its ethical system, but had rejected the divinity of Christ as he had denied the Hindu Incarnations. The religion of Islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of his monotheistic doctrines. But he always went back to the Vedas for his spiritual inspiration. The Brahmo Samaj, which he founded in 1828, was dedicated to the "worship and adoration of the Eternal, the Unsearchable, the Immutable Being, Who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe". The Samaj was open to all without distinction of colour, creed, caste, nation, or religion.
The real organizer of the Samaj was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the father of the poet Rabindranath. His physical and spiritual beauty, aristocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him the foremost leader of the educated Bengalis. These addressed him by the respectful epithet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". The Maharshi was a Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, drew his inspiration entirely from the Upanishads. He was an implacable enemy of image worship ship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Christian ideas into the Samaj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under his influence the Brahmo Samaj professed One Self-existent Supreme Being Who had created the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man should love Him and do His will, believe in Him and worship Him, and thus merit salvation in the world to come.
By far the ablest leader of the Brahmo movement was Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884). Unlike Raja Rammohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore, Keshab was born of a middle-class Bengali family and had been brought up in an English school. He did not know Sanskrit and very soon broke away from the popular Hindu religion. Even at an early age he came under the spell of Christ and professed to have experienced the special favour of John the Baptist, Christ, and St. Paul. When he strove to introduce Christ to the Brahmo Samaj, a rupture became inevitable with Devendranath. In 1868 Keshab broke with the older leader and founded the Brahmo Samaj of India, Devendra retaining leadership of the first Brahmo Samaj, now called the Adi Samaj.
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The other movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century religious revival of India was the Arya Samaj. The Brahmo Samaj, essentially a movement of compromise with European culture, tacitly admitted the superiority of the West. But the founder of the Arya Samaj was a ' pugnacious Hindu sannyasi Who accepted the challenge of Islam and Christianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India. Swami Dayananda (1824-1883) launched this movement in Bombay in 1875, and soon its influence was felt throughout western India. The Swami was a great scholar of the Vedas, which he explained as being strictly monotheistic. He preached against the worship of images and re-established the ancient Vedic sacrificial rites. According to him the Vedas were the ultimate authority on religion, and he accepted every word of them as literally true. The Arya Samaj became a bulwark against the encroachments of Islam and Christianity, and its orthodox flavour appealed to many Hindu minds. It also assumed leadership in many movements of social reform. The caste-system became a target of its attack. Women it liberated from many of their social disabilities. The cause of education received from it a great impetus. It started agitation against early marriage and advocated the remarriage of Hindu widows. Its influence was strongest in the Punjab, the battle-ground of the Hindu and Islamic cultures. A new fighting attitude was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj, the influence of the Arya Samaj was not confined to the intellectuals. It was a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic movement intolerant of those Who disagreed with its views, and it emphasized only one way, the Arya Samaj way, to the realization of Truth. Sri Ramakrishna met Swami Dayananda when the latter visited Bengal.
--- KESHAB CHANDRA SEN
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Among the Brahmo leaders Who knew the Master closely were Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Vijaykrishna Goswami, Trailokyanath Sannyal, and Shivanath Shastri.
Shivanath, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity and abhorrence of praise. He was seated with Sri Ramakrishna in the latter's room when several rich men of Calcutta arrived. The Master left the room for a few minutes. In the mean time Hriday, his nephew, began to describe his samadhi to the visitors. The last few words caught the Master's ear as he entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get from them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and indifferent to external life. I became positively insane for some time. The sadhus Who frequented this temple told me to practise many things. I tried to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to insanity." This is a quotation from one of Shivanath's books. He took the Master's words literally and failed to see their real import.
Shivanath vehemently criticized the Master for his other-worldly attitude toward his wife. He writes: "Ramakrishna was practically separated from his wife, Who lived in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends about the virtual wido Whood of his wife, he drew me to one side and whispered in my ear: 'Why do you complain? It is no longer possible; it is all dead and gone.' Another day as I was inveighing against this part of his teaching, and also declaring that our program of work in the Brahmo Samaj includes women, that ours is a social and domestic religion, and that we want to give education and social liberty to women, the saint became very much excited, as was his way when anything against his settled conviction was asserted — a trait we so much liked in him — and exclaimed, 'Go, thou fool, go and perish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant? Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it from goats and cattle? And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?' I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the same in your spiritual life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' — a view with which he could not agree, and he marked his dissent by shaking his head. Then referring to the lateness of the hour he jocularly remarked, 'It is time for you to depart; take care, do not be late; otherwise your woman will not admit you into her room.' This evoked hearty laughter."
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, Who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a Whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, Who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his Whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
--
Contact with the Brahmos increased Sri Ramakrishna's longing to encounter aspirants Who would be able to follow his teachings in their purest form. "There was no limit", he once declared, "to the longing I felt at that time. During the day-time I somehow managed to control it. The secular talk of the worldly-minded was galling to me, and I would look wistfully to the day when my own beloved companions would come. I hoped to find solace in conversing with them and relating to them my own realizations. Every little incident would remind me of them, and thoughts of them Wholly engrossed me. I was already arranging in my mind what I should say to one and give to another, and so on. But when the day would come to a close I would not be able to curb my feelings. The thought that another day had gone by, and they had not come, oppressed me. When, during the evening service, the temples rang with the sound of bells and conch-shells, I would climb to the roof of the kuthi in the garden and, writhing in anguish of heart, cry at the top of my voice: 'Come, my children! Oh, where are you? I cannot bear to live without you.' A mother never longed so intensely for the sight of her child, nor a friend for his companions, nor a lover for his sweetheart, as I longed for them. Oh, it was indescribable! Shortly after this period of yearning the devotees1 began to come."
In the year 1879 occasional writings about Sri Ramakrishna by the Brahmos, in the Brahmo magazines, began to attract his future disciples from the educated middle-class Bengalis, and they continued to come till 1884. But others, too, came, feeling the subtle power of his attraction. They were an ever shifting crowd of people of all castes and creeds: Hindus and Brahmos, Vaishnavas and Saktas, the educated with university degrees and the illiterate, old and young, maharajas and beggars, journalists and artists, pundits and devotees, philosophers and the worldly-minded, jnanis and yogis, men of action and men of faith, virtuous women and prostitutes, office-holders and vagabonds, philanthropists and self-seekers, dramatists and drunkards, builders-up and pullers-down. He gave to them all, without stint, from his illimitable store of realization. No one went away empty-handed. He taught them the lofty .knowledge of the Vedanta and the soul
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^The word is generally used in the text to denote one devoted to God, a worshipper of the Personal God, or a follower of the path of love. A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna is one Who is devoted to Sri Ramakrishna and follows his teachings. The word "disciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakrishna, refers to one Who had been initiated into spiritual life by Sri Ramakrishna and Who regarded him as his guru.
--- THE MASTER'S METHOD OF TEACHING
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a father, and a master — pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an expert gardener, Who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mother. Even the light that leads astray was to him the light from God.
To those Who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person. They had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them His vision.
Through all this fun and frolic, this merriment and frivolity, he always kept before them the shining ideal of God-Consciousness and the path of renunciation. He prescribed ascents steep or graded according to the powers of the climber. He permitted no compromise with the basic principles of purity. An aspirant had to keep his body, mind, senses, and soul unspotted; had to have a sincere love for God and an ever mounting spirit of yearning. The rest would be done by the Mother.
His disciples were of two kinds: the householders, and the young men, some of Whom were later to become monks. There was also a small group of women devotees.
--- HOUSEHOLDER DEVOTEES
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The first two householder devotees to come to Dakshineswar were Ramchandra Dutta and Manomohan Mitra. A medical practitioner and chemist, Ram was sceptical about God and religion and never enjoyed peace of soul. He wanted tangible proof of God's existence. The Master said to him: "God really" exists. You don't see the stars in the day-time, but that doesn't mean that the stars do not exist. There is butter in milk. But can anybody see it by merely looking at the milk? To get butter you must churn milk in a quiet and cool place. You cannot realize God by a mere wish; you must go through some mental disciplines." By degrees the Master awakened Ram's spirituality and the latter became one of his foremost lay disciples. It was Ram Who introduced Narendranath to Sri Ramakrishna. Narendra was a relative of Ram.
Manomohan at first met with considerable opposition from his wife and other relatives, Who resented his visits to Dakshineswar. But in the end the unselfish love of the Master triumphed over worldly affection. It was Manomohan Who brought Rakhal to the Master.
--- SURENDRA
Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple Whom the Master often addressed as Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian life. He was addicted to drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A victim of mental depression, he was brought to Sri Ramakrishna by Ramchandra chandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple to practise the virtue of self-surrender to God, he was impressed. But though he tried thenceforth to do so, he was unable to give up his old associates and his drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes to an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?" And to Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink wine as wine? Offer it to Kali, and then take it as Her prasad, as consecrated drink
. But see that you don't become intoxicated; you must not reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually Surendra's entire life was changed. The Master designated him as one of those commissioned by the Divine Mother to defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
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Kedarnath Chatterji was endowed with a spiritual temperament and had tried various paths of religion, some not very commendable. When he met the Master at Dakshineswar he understood the true meaning of religion. It is said that the Master, weary of instructing devotees Who were coming to him in great numbers for guidance, once prayed to the Goddess Kali: "Mother, I am tired of speaking to people. Please give power to Kedar, Girish, Ram, Vijay, and Mahendra to give them the preliminary instruction, so that just a little teaching from me will be enough." He was aware, however, of Kedar's lingering attachment to worldly things and often warned him about it.
--- HARISH
Harish, a young man in affluent circumstances, renounced his family and took shelter with the Master, Who loved him for his sincerity, singleness of purpose, and quiet nature. He spent his leisure time in prayer and meditation, turning a deaf ear to the entreaties and threats of his relatives. Referring to his undisturbed peace of mind, the Master would say: "Real men are dead to the world though living. Look at Harish. He is an example." When one day the Master asked him to be a little kind to his wife, Harish said: "You must excuse me on this point. This is not the place to show kindness. If I try to be sympathetic to her, there is a possibility of my forgetting the ideal and becoming entangled in the world."
--- BHAVANATH
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Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakrishna whether God really existed and, if so, whether a man could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee Who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is sought. There is none more intimate and affectionate than God." Balaram had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words; every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.
--- MAHENDRA OR M.
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Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey his father's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed Who can give his love to God with his Whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will be ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors he said, "If the mind clings to the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the Infinite?" That was the end of Durgacharan's medical practice and he threw his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
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As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one Who silently unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and took liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish to give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Girish to give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He Who has taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words could not induce a man to break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him to give up alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him: "All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that He also, on his part, had to give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakrishna's hands. The Master began to discipline him according to this new attitude. One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Girish understood. Thenceforth he tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to the Divine Will. His mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna. This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.
The householder devotees generally visited Sri Ramakrishna on Sunday afternoons and other holidays. Thus a brotherhood was gradually formed, and the Master encouraged their fraternal feeling. Now and then he would accept an invitation to a devotee's home, where other devotees would also be invited. Kirtan would be arranged and they would spend hours in dance and devotional music. The Master would go into trances or open his heart in religious discourses and in the narration of his own spiritual experiences. Many people Who could not go to Dakshineswar participated in these meetings and felt blessed. Such an occasion would be concluded with a sumptuous feast.
But it was in the company of his younger devotees, pure souls yet unstained by the touch of worldliness, that Sri Ramakrishna took greatest joy. Among the young men Who later embraced the householder's life were Narayan, Paitu, the younger Naren, Tejchandra, and Purna. These visited the Master sometimes against strong opposition from home.
--- PURNA
Purna was a lad of thirteen, Whom Sri Ramakrishna described as an Isvarakoti, a soul born with special spiritual qualities. The Master said that Purna was the last of the group of brilliant devotees Who, as he once had seen in a trance, would come to him for spiritual illumination. Purna said to Sri Ramakrishna during their second meeting, "You are God Himself incarnated in flesh and blood." Such words coming from a mere youngster proved of what stuff the boy was made.
--- MAHIMACHARAN AND PRATAP HAZRA
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Pratap Hazra, a middle-aged man, hailed from a village near Kamarpukur. He was not altogether unresponsive to religious feelings. On a moment's impulse he had left his home, aged mother, wife, and children, and had found shelter in the temple garden at Dakshineswar, where he intended to lead a spiritual life. He loved to argue, and the Master often pointed him out as an example of barren argumentation. He was hypercritical of others and cherished an exaggerated notion of his own spiritual advancement. He was mischievous and often tried to upset the minds of the Master's young disciples, criticizing them for their happy and joyous life and asking them to devote their time to meditation. The Master teasingly compared Hazra to Jatila and Kutila, the two women Who always created obstructions in Krishna's sport with the gopis, and said that Hazra lived at Dakshineswar to "thicken the plot" by adding complications.
--- SOME NOTED MEN
Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people Whose scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere to respect. He had met, a few years before, Devendranath Tagore, famous all over Bengal for his wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with his saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, Who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mother "pressed his tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled aristocrat of Bengal; Kristodas Pal, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthropist and educator; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man to be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was missing he would have nothing to do with them.
--- KRISTODAS PAL
The Europeanized Kristodas Pal did not approve of the Master's emphasis on renunciation and said; "Sir, this cant of renunciation has almost ruined the country. It is for this reason that the Indians are a subject nation today. Doing good to others, bringing education to the door of the ignorant, and above all, improving the material conditions of the country — these should be our duty now. The cry of religion and renunciation would, on the contrary, only weaken us. You should advise the young men of Bengal to resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakrishna gave him a searching look and found no divine light within, "You man of poor understanding!" Sri Ramakrishna said sharply. "You dare to slight in these terms renunciation and piety, which our scriptures describe as the greatest of all virtues! After reading two pages of English you think you have come to know the world! You appear to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in? In this big universe you are even less significant than one of those small creatures. How dare you talk of helping the world? The Lord will look to that. You haven't the power in you to do it." After a pause the Master continued: "Can you explain to me how you can work for others? I know what you mean by helping them. To feed a number of persons, to treat them when they are sick, to construct a road or dig a well — isn't that all? These, are good deeds, no doubt, but how trifling in comparison with the vastness of the universe! How far can a man advance in this line? How many people can you save from famine? Malaria has ruined a Whole province; what could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority from God and be endowed with His power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egotism. Then alone will the Blissful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakrishna mistrusted philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it. He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egotism, vanity, a desire for glory, a barren excitement to kill the boredom of life, or an attempt to soothe a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of God — service to man in a spirit of worship.
--- MONASTIC DISCIPLES
The disciples Whom the Master trained for monastic life were the following:
Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda)
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Even before Rakhal's coming to Dakshineswar, the Master had had visions of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindavan. Rakhal was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra, from Whom he first heard of the Master. His father objected to his association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshineswar. The relationship between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mother and child. Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rakhal many liberties denied to others. But he would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time Rakhal felt a childlike jealousy because he found that other boys were receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as the Guru of the Whole universe. The Master was worried to hear of his marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul Who would not be a hindrance to his progress.
--- THE ELDER GOPAL
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To spread his message to the four corners of the earth Sri Ramakrishna needed a strong instrument. With his frail body and delicate limbs he could not make great journeys across wide spaces. And such an instrument was found in Narendranath Dutta, his beloved Naren, later known to the world as Swami Vivekananda. Even before meeting Narendranath, the Master had seen him in a vision as a sage, immersed in the meditation of the Absolute, Who at Sri Ramakrishna's request had agreed to take human birth to assist him in his work.
Narendra was born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, of an aristocratic kayastha family. His mother was steeped in the great Hindu epics, and his father, a distinguished attorney of the Calcutta High Court, was an agnostic about religion, a friend of the poor, and a mocker at social conventions. Even in his boyhood and youth Narendra possessed great physical courage and presence of mind, a vivid imagination, deep power of thought, keen intelligence, an extraordinary memory, a love of truth, a passion for purity, a spirit of independence, and a tender heart. An expert musician, he also acquired proficiency in physics, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, history, and literature. He grew up into an extremely handsome young man. Even as a child he practised meditation and showed great power of concentration. Though free and passionate in word and action, he took the vow of austere religious chastity and never allowed the fire of purity to be extinguished by the slightest defilement of body or soul.
As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God. But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, required a concrete support to help him in the hours of temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, Who by embodying perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became a singer in its choir. But in the Samaj he did not find the guru Who could say that he had seen God.
In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra came to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He was then eighteen years of age and had been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by some light-hearted friends. At Sri Ramakrishna's request he sang a few songs, pouring his Whole soul into them, and the Master went into samadhi. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna suddenly left his seat, took Narendra by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of his room. They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why have you been so unkind as to make me wait all these days? My ears are tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed to pour my spirit into the heart of someone fitted to receive my message!" He talked thus, sobbing all the time. Then, standing before Narendra with folded hands, he addressed him as Narayana, born on earth to remove the misery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him to come again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is this I have come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of Viswanath Dutta. How dare he speak this way to me?"
When they returned to the room and Narendra heard the Master speaking to others, he was surprised to find in his words an inner logic, a striking sincerity, and a convincing proof of his spiritual nature. In answer to Narendra's question, "Sir, have you seen God?" the Master said: "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you." Continuing, the Master said: "But, my child, Who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day they would surely see Him." Narendra was amazed. These words he could not doubt. This was the first time he had ever heard a man saying that he had seen God. But he could not reconcile these words of the Master with the scene that had taken place on the verandah only a few minutes before. He concluded that Sri Ramakrishna was a monomaniac, and returned home rather puzzled in mind.
During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and everything around him whirling and vanishing. "What are you doing to me?" he cried in terror. "I have my father and mother at home." He saw his own ego and the Whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless void. With a laugh the Master easily restored him. Narendra thought he might have been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a monomaniac could cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like himself. He returned home more confused than ever, resolved to be henceforth on his guard before this strange man.
But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal life. The answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred. Among other things, he came to know that Narendra was a sage Who had already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.
A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God. Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations. Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna was grateful to the Divine Mother for sending him one Who doubted his own realizations. Often he asked Narendra to test him as the money-changers test their coins. He laughed at Narendra's biting criticism of his spiritual experiences and samadhi. When at times Narendra's sharp words distressed him, the Divine Mother Herself would console him, saying: "Why do you listen to him? In a few days he will believe your every word." He could hardly bear Narendra's absences. Often he would weep bitterly for the sight of him. Sometimes Narendra would find the Master's love embarrassing; and one day he sharply scolded him, warning him that such infatuation would soon draw him down to the level of its object. The Master was distressed and prayed to the Divine Mother. Then he said to Narendra: "You rogue, I won't listen to you any more. Mother says that I love you because I see God in you, and the day I no longer see God in you I shall not be able to bear even the sight of you."
The Master wanted to train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy. But Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it Wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. He could hardly go about his day's business. His parents became anxious about him and thought him ill. And when the intensity of the experience abated a little, he saw the world as a dream. Walking in the public square, he would strike his head against the iron railings to know whether they were real. It took him a number of days to recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.
At the beginning of 1884 Narendra's father suddenly died of heart-failure, leaving the family in a state of utmost poverty. There were six or seven mouths to feed at home. Creditors were knocking at the door. Relatives Who had accepted his father's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit to deprive Narendra of his ancestral home. Actually starving and barefoot, Narendra searched for a job, but without success. He began to doubt whether anywhere in the world there was such a thing as unselfish sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals to him and promised to put an end to his distress; but he refused them with contempt.
Narendra began to talk of his doubt of the very existence of God. His friends thought he had become an atheist, and piously circulated gossip adducing unmentionable motives for his unbelief. His moral character was maligned. Even some of the Master's disciples partly believed the gossip, and Narendra told these to their faces that only a coward believed in God through fear of suffering or hell. But he was distressed to think that Sri Ramakrishna, too, might believe these false reports. His pride revolted. He said to himself: "What does it matter? If a man's good name rests on such slender foundations, I don't care." But later on he was amazed to learn that the Master had never lost faith in him. To a disciple Who complained about Narendra's degradation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: "Hush, you fool! The Mother has told me it can never be so. I won't look at you if you speak that way again."
The moment came when Narendra's distress reached its climax. He had gone the Whole day without food. As he was returning home in the evening he could hardly lift his tired limbs. He sat down in front of a house in sheer exhaustion, too weak even to think. His mind began to wander. Then, suddenly, a divine power lifted the veil over his soul. He found the solution of the problem of the coexistence of divine justice and misery, the presence of suffering in the creation of a blissful Providence. He felt bodily refreshed, his soul was bathed in peace, and he slept serenely.
Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission to fulfil. He resolved to renounce the world, as his grandfather had renounced it, and he came to Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth, the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly life," he said, "but for my sake live in the world as long as I live."
--
This was a very rich and significant experience for Narendra. It taught him that Sakti, the Divine Power, cannot be ignored in the world and that in the relative plane the need of worshipping a Personal God is imperative. Sri Ramakrishna was overjoyed with the conversion. The next day, sitting almost on Narendra's lap, he said to a devotee, pointing first to himself, then to Narendra: "I see I am this, and again that. Really I feel no difference. A stick floating in the Ganges seems to divide the water; But in reality the water is one. Do you see my point? Well, whatever is, is the Mother — isn't that so?" In later years Narendra would say: "Sri Ramakrishna was the only person Who, from the time he met me, believed in me uniformly throughout. Even my mother and brothers did not. It was his unwavering trust and love for me that bound me to him for ever. He alone knew how to love. Worldly people, only make a show of love for selfish ends.
--- TARAK
Others destined to be monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna came to Dakshineswar. Taraknath Ghoshal had felt from his boyhood the noble desire to realize God. Keshab and the Brahmo Samaj had attracted him but proved inadequate. In 1882 he first met the Master at Ramchandra's house and was astonished to hear him talk about samadhi, a subject which always fascinated his mind. And that evening he actually saw a manifestation of that superconscious state in the Master. Tarak became a frequent visitor at Dakshineswar and received the Master's grace in abundance. The young boy often felt ecstatic fervour in meditation. He also wept profusely while meditating on God. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "God favours those Who can weep for Him. Tears shed for God wash away the sins of former births."
--- BABURAM
--
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind Wholly to God?" Niranjan was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
--
Sashi and Sarat were two cousins Who came from a pious brahmin family of Calcutta. At an early age they had joined the Brahmo Samaj and had come under the influence of Keshab Sen. The Master said to them at their first meeting: "If bricks and tiles are burnt after the trade-mark has been stamped on them, they retain the mark for ever. Similarly, man should be stamped with God before entering the world. Then he will not become attached to worldliness." Fully aware of the future course of their life, he asked them not to marry. The Master asked Sashi whether he believed in God with form or in God without form. Sashi replied that he was not even sure about the existence of God; so he could not speak one way or the other. This frank answer very much pleased the Master.
Sarat's soul longed for the all-embracing realization of the Godhead. When the Master inquired whether there was any particular form of God he wished to see, the boy replied that he would like to see God in all the living beings of the world. "But", the Master demurred, "that is the last word in realization. One cannot have it at the very outset." Sarat stated calmly: "I won't be satisfied with anything short of that. I shall trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased.
--
Subodh visited the Master in 1885. At the very first meeting Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "You will succeed. Mother says so. Those Whom She sends here will certainly attain spirituality." During the second meeting the Master wrote something on Subodh's tongue, stroked his body from the navel to the throat, and said, "Awake, Mother! Awake." He asked the boy to meditate. At once Subodh's latent spirituality was awakened. He felt a current rushing along the spinal column to the brain. Joy filled his soul.
--- SARADA AND TULASI
--
Unsurpassed among the woman devotees of the Master in the richness of her devotion and spiritual experiences was Aghoremani Devi, an orthodox brahmin woman. Widowed at an early age, she had dedicated herself completely to spiritual pursuits. Gopala, the Baby Krishna, was her Ideal Deity, Whom she worshipped following the vatsalya attitude of the Vaishnava religion, regarding Him as her own child. Through Him she satisfied her unassuaged maternal love, cooking for Him, feeding Him, bathing Him, and putting Him to bed. This sweet intimacy with Gopala won her the sobriquet of Gopal Ma, or Gopala's Mother. For forty years she had lived on the bank of the Ganges in a small, bare room, her only companions being a threadbare copy of the Ramayana and a bag containing her rosary. At the age of sixty, in 1884, she visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. During the second visit, as soon as the Master saw her, he said: "Oh, you have come! Give me something to eat." With great hesitation she gave him some ordinary sweets that she had purchased for him on the way. The Master ate them with relish and asked her to bring him simple curries or sweets prepared by her own hands. Gopal Ma thought him a queer kind of monk, for, instead of talking of God, he always asked for food. She did not want to visit him again, but an irresistible attraction brought her back to the temple garden; She carried with her some simple curries that she had cooked herself.
One early morning at three o'clock, about a year later, Gopal Ma was about to finish her daily devotions, when she was startled to find Sri Ramakrishna sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image of Gopala. She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopala, her Ideal Deity. She cried aloud with joy. Gopala begged her for butter. She pleaded her poverty and gave Him some dry coconut candies. Gopala, sat on her lap, snatched away her rosary, jumped on her shoulders, and moved all about the room. As soon as the day broke she hastened to Dakshineswar like an insane woman. Of course Gopala accompanied her, resting His head on her shoulder. She clearly saw His tiny ruddy feet hanging over her breast. She entered Sri Ramakrishna's room. The Master had fallen into samadhi. Like a child, he sat on her lap, and she began to feed him with butter, cream, and other delicacies. After some time he regained consciousness and returned to his bed. But the mind of Gopala's Mother was still roaming in another plane. She was steeped in bliss. She saw Gopala frequently entering the Master's body and again coming out of it. When she returned to her hut, still in a dazed condition, Gopala accompanied her.
--
During the week-ends the householders, enjoying a respite from their office duties, visited the Master. The meetings on Sunday afternoons were of the nature of little festivals. Refreshments were often served. Professional musicians now and then sang devotional songs. The Master and the devotees sang and danced, Sri Ramakrishna frequently going into ecstatic moods. The happy memory of such a Sunday would linger long in the minds of the devotees. Those Whom the Master wanted for special instruction he would ask to visit him on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These days were particularly auspicious for the worship of Kali.
The young disciples destined to be monks, Sri Ramakrishna invited on week-days, when the householders were not present. The training of the householders and of the future monks had to proceed along entirely different lines. Since M. generally visited the Master on week-ends, the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna does not contain much mention of the future monastic disciples.
Finally, there was a handful of fortunate disciples, householders as well as youngsters, Who were privileged to spend nights with the Master in his room. They would see him get up early in the morning and walk up and down the room, singing in his sweet voice and tenderly communing with the Mother.
--- INJURY TO THE MASTER'S ARM
One day, in January 1884, the Master was going toward the pine-grove when he went into a trance. He was alone. There was no one to support him or guide his footsteps. He fell to the ground and dislocated a bone in his left arm. This accident had a significant influence on his mind, the natural inclination of which was to soar above the consciousness of the body. The acute pain in the arm forced his mind to dwell on the body and on the world outside. But he saw even in this a divine purpose; for, with his mind compelled to dwell on the physical plane, he realized more than ever that he was an instrument in the hand of the Divine Mother, Who had a mission to fulfil through his human body and mind. He also distinctly found that in the phenomenal world God manifests Himself, in an inscrutable way, through diverse human beings, both good and evil. Thus he would speak of God in the guise of the wicked, God in the guise of the pious. God in the guise of the hypocrite, God in the guise of the lewd. He began to take a special delight in watching the divine play in the relative world. Sometimes the sweet human relationship with God would appear to him more appealing than the all-effacing Knowledge of Brahman. Many a time he would pray: "Mother, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana, Mother. Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my Mother. A million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those Who want it." Again he prayed: "O Mother let me remain in contact with men! Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want to enjoy Your sport in the world." He was able to taste this very rich divine experience and enjoy the love of God and the company of His devotees because his mind, on account of the injury to his arm, was forced to come down to the consciousness of the body. Again, he would make fun of people Who proclaimed him as a Divine Incarnation, by pointing to his broken arm. He would say, "Have you ever heard of God breaking His arm?" It took the arm about five months to heal.
--- BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation or absorption in samadhi, making the blood flow into the throat, would aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Vaishnava festival was celebrated at Panihati, Sri Ramakrishna attended it against the doctor's advice. With a group of disciples he spent himself in music, dance, and ecstasy. The illness took a turn for the worse and was diagnosed as "clergyman's sore throat". The patient was cautioned against conversation and ecstasies. Though he followed the physician's directions regarding medicine and diet, he could neither control his trances nor withhold from seekers the solace of his advice. Sometimes, like a sulky child, he would complain to the Mother about the crowds, Who gave him no rest day or night. He was overheard to say to Her; "Why do You bring here all these worthless people, Who are like milk diluted with five times its own quantity of water? My eyes are almost destroyed with blowing the fire to dry up the water. My health is gone. It is beyond my strength. Do it Yourself, if You want it done. This (pointing to his own body) is but a perforated drum, and if you go on beating it day in and day out, how long will it last?"
But his large heart never turned anyone away. He said, "Let me be condemned to be born over and over again, even in the form of a dog, if I can be of help to a single soul." And he bore the pain, singing cheerfully, "Let the body be preoccupied with illness, but, O mind, dwell for ever in God's Bliss!"
One night he had a hemorrhage of the throat. The doctor now diagnosed the illness as cancer. Narendra was the first to break this heart-rending news to the disciples. Within three days the Master was removed to Calcutta for better treatment. At Balaram's house he remained a week until a suitable place could be found at Syampukur, in the northern section of Calcutta. During this week he dedicated himself practically without respite to the instruction of those beloved devotees Who had been unable to visit him oftener at Dakshineswar. Discourses incessantly flowed from his tongue, and he often went into samadhi. Dr. Mahendra Sarkar, the celebrated homeopath of Calcutta, was invited to undertake his treatment.
--- SYAMPUKUR
In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to Syampukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness from their guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting themselves Whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru. These young men, under the watchful eyes of the Master and the leadership of Narendra, became the antaranga bhaktas, the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna's inner circle. They were privileged to witness many manifestations of the Master's divine powers. Narendra received instructions regarding the propagation of his message after his death.
The Holy Mother — so Sarada Devi had come to be affectionately known by Sri Ramakrishna's devotees — was brought from Dakshineswar to look after the general cooking and to prepare the special diet of the patient. The dwelling space being extremely limited, she had to adapt herself to cramped conditions. At three o'clock in the morning she would finish her bath in the Ganges and then enter a small covered place on the roof, where she spent the Whole day cooking and praying. After eleven at night, when the visitors went away, she would come down to her small bedroom on the first floor to enjoy a few hours' sleep. Thus she spent three months, working hard, sleeping little, and praying constantly for the Master's recovery.
At Syampukur the devotees led an intense life. Their attendance on the Master was in itself a form of spiritual discipline. His mind was constantly soaring to an exalted plane of consciousness. Now and then they would catch the contagion of his spiritual fervour. They sought to divine the meaning of this illness of the Master, Whom most of them had accepted as an Incarnation of God. One group, headed by Girish with his robust optimism and great power of imagination, believed that the illness was a mere pretext to serve a deeper purpose. The Master had willed his illness in order to bring the devotees together and promote solidarity among them. As soon as this purpose was served, he would himself get rid of the disease. A second group thought that the Divine Mother, in Whose hand the Master was an instrument, had brought about this illness to serve Her own mysterious ends. But the young rationalists, led by Narendra, refused to ascribe a
supernatural cause to a natural phenomenon. They believed that the Master's body, a material thing, was subject, like all other material things, to physical laws. Growth, development, decay, and death were laws of nature to which the Master's body could not but respond. But though holding differing views, they all believed that it was to him alone that they must look for the attainment of their spiritual goal.
--
It was noticed at this time that some of the devotees were making an unbridled display of their emotions. A number of them, particularly among the householders, began to cultivate, though at first unconsciously, the art of shedding tears, shaking the body, contorting the face, and going into trances, attempting thereby to imitate the Master. They began openly to declare Sri Ramakrishna a Divine Incarnation and to regard themselves as his chosen people, Who could neglect religious disciplines with impunity. Narendra's penetrating eye soon sized up the situation. He found out that some of these external manifestations were being carefully practised at home, while some were the outcome of malnutrition, mental weakness, or nervous debility. He mercilessly exposed the devotees Who were pretending to have visions, and asked all to develop a healthy religious spirit. Narendra sang inspiring songs for the younger devotees, read with them the Imitation of Christ and the Gita, and held before them the positive ideals of spirituality.
--- LAST DAYS AT COSSIPORE
--
"I shall make the Whole thing public before I go", the Master had said some time before. On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish, "Well, Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Girish was not the man to be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said, with folded hands, "What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One Whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?" The Master was profoundly moved. He said: "What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!" He fell into a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.
Narendra, consumed with a terrific fever for realization, complained to the Master that all the others had attained peace and that he alone was dissatisfied. The Master asked what he wanted. Narendra begged for samadhi, so that he might altogether forget the world for three or four days at a time. "You are a fool", the Master rebuked him. "There is a state even higher than that. Isn't it you Who sing, 'All that exists art Thou'? First of all settle your family affairs and then come to me. You will experience a state even higher than samadhi."
The Master did not hide the fact that he wished to make Narendra his spiritual heir. Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakrishna's passing. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "I leave these young men in your charge. See that they develop their spirituality and do not return home." One day he asked the boys, in preparation for a monastic life, to beg their food from door to door without thought of caste. They hailed the Master's order and went out with begging-bowls. A few days later he gave the ochre cloth of the sannyasi to each of them, including Girish, Who was now second to none in his spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the future Ramakrishna Order of monks.
Sri Ramakrishna was sinking day by day. His diet was reduced to a minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He whispered to M.: "I am bearing all this cheerfully, for otherwise you would be weeping. If you all say that it is better that the body should go rather than suffer this torture, I am willing." The next morning he said to his depressed disciples seated near the bed: "Do you know what I see? I see that God alone has become everything. Men and animals are only frameworks covered with skin, and it is He Who is moving through their heads and limbs. I see that it is God Himself Who has become the block, the executioner, and the victim for the sacrifice.' He fainted with emotion. Regaining partial consciousness, he said: "Now I have no pain. I am very well." Looking at Latu he said: "There sits Latu resting his head on the palm of his hand. To me it is the Lord Who is seated in that posture."
The words were tender and touching. Like a mother he caressed Narendra and Rakhal, gently stroking their faces. He said in a half whisper to M., "Had this body been allowed to last a little longer, many more souls would have been illumined." He paused a moment and then said: "But Mother has ordained otherwise. She will take me away lest, finding me guileless and foolish, people should take advantage of me and persuade me to bestow on them the rare gifts of spirituality." A few minutes later he touched his chest and said: "Here are two beings. One is She and the other is Her devotee. It is the latter Who broke his arm, and it is he again Who is now ill. Do you understand me?" After a pause he added: "Alas! To Whom shall I tell all this? Who will understand me?" "Pain", he consoled them again, 'is unavoidable as long as there is a body. The Lord takes on the body for the sake of His devotees."
Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was tortured by this agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of his life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly evident to all Who watched him. People Who did not understand him thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted to us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had 'been suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these truths: 'Brahman is always unattached. The three gunas are in It, but It is unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.' 'Brahman is Infinite Being, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is one indivisible Absolute Existence.'"
The Holy Mother secretly went to a Siva temple across the Ganges to intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was told to prepare herself for the inevitable end.
--
After another long period Narendra regained full consciousness. Bathed in peace, he went to the Master, Who said: "Now the Mother has shown you everything. But this revelation will remain under lock and key, and I shall keep the key. When you have accomplished the Mother's work you will find the treasure again."
Some days later, Narendra being alone with the Master, Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and went into samadhi. Narendra felt the penetration of a subtle force and lost all outer consciousness. Regaining presently the normal mood, he found the Master weeping.
--
Doubt, however, dies hard. After one or two days Narendra said to himself, "If in the midst of this racking physical pain he declares his Godhead, then only shall I accept him as an Incarnation of God." He was alone by the bedside of the Master. It was a passing thought, but the Master smiled. Gathering his remaining strength, he distinctly said, "He Who was Rama and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna — but not in your Vedantic sense." Narendra was stricken with shame.
--- MAHASAMADHI
Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The devotees stood by the bedside. Toward dusk Sri Ramakrishna had difficulty in breathing. A short time afterwards he complained of hunger. A little liquid food was put into his mouth; some of it he swallowed, and the rest ran over his chin. Two attendants began to fan him. All at once he went into samadhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Sashi burst into tears. But after midnight the Master revived. He was now very hungry and helped himself to a bowl of porridge. He said he was strong again. He sat up against five or six pillows, which were supported by the body of Sashi, Who was fanning him. Narendra took his feet on his lap and began to rub them. Again and again the Master repeated to him, "Take care of these boys." Then he asked to lie down. Three times in ringing tone's he cried the name of Kali, his life's Beloved, and lay back. At two minutes past one there was a low sound in his throat and he fell a little to one side. A thrill passed over his body. His hair stood on end. His eyes became fixed on the tip of his nose. His face was lighted with a smile. The final ecstasy began. It was mahasamadhi, total absorption, from which his mind never returned. Narendra, unable to bear it, ran downstairs.
Dr. Sarkar arrived the following noon and pronounced that life had departed not more than half an hour before. At five o'clock the Masters body was brought downstairs, laid on a cot, dressed in ochre clothes, and decorated with sandal-paste and flowers. A procession was formed. The passers-by wept as the body was taken to the cremation ground at the Baranagore Ghat on the Ganges.
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
77 Laylah, Whose name adds to that number; and
80, the number of the letter Pe, referred to Mars, a
--
Mercury, the Magus of the Tarot, Who has four
weapons, and it must be remembered that this card is
--
None are They Whose number is Six:(5) else were they
six indeed.
--
of the Infinite Who initiate periods. they are called
Dinosaurs because of their seeming to be terrible
--
(5) Masters of the Temple, Whose grade has the
mystic number 6 (= 1 + 2 + 3).
--
The meaning of the chapter is quite clear; the Whole
race-consciousness, that which is omnipotent, omnis-
--
In this utterance of falsehood upon falsehood, Whose
contradictories are also false, it seems as if That
--
Pan is a generic name, including this Whole system
of its manifested side. Those which are above the Abyss
--
Whole course of numbers from the simple unity of 1
to the complex unity of 13, impregnated by the magical
--
The Whole chapter is, again, a comment on Liber
legis, 1, 28-30.
--
Thus hast thou been lured along That Path, Whose
terror else had driven thee far away.
--
Thus art thou lured along That Path, Whose fascina-
tion else had driven thee far away.
--
This chapter is perfectly clear to anyone Who has
studied the career of an Adept.
--
of fire Whose summit is lost in Heaven. Upon it
have I burned the corpse of my desires.
--
In love the individuality is slain; Who loves not love?
Love death therefore, and long eagerly for it.
--
God of Midnight, Who bears the Sun through the
Underworld; but it is called the Stag-Beetle to emphasise
--
There is a Swan Whose name is Ecstasy: it wingeth
from the Deserts of the North;it wingeth through
--
than that of the man Who is its guardian and servant.
[47]
--
The waiters of the best eating-houses mock the Whole
world; they estimate every client at his proper
--
interest in the affairs of those Whom they serve.
An absolute monarch would be absolutely wise and
--
blindness. Those Who are under the dominion of reason
are called blind.
--
The Second, Who is the Fourth, the Demiurge, Whom
all nations of Men call The First, is a lie grafted
--
Fourfold is He, the Elephant upon Whom the
Universe is poised: but the carapace of the
--
In the Whole system of ten million times ten million
spheres upon the two and twenty million planes he
--
book, Laylah, Who is the ultimate feminine symbol, to
be interpreted on all planes.
--
Who frequently employs it in his holy discourse.
NOTE
--
I do not give myself Wholly up.
Take me, Who will!
[80]
--
no night in the Whole of the Solar System, except in rare
spots, where the shadow of a planet is cast by itself.
--
Then are they all glorious Who seem not to be glorious,
as the HIMOG is All-glorious Within?
--
referred to in Liber LXI. It is he Who is responsible
for the Whole of the development of the A,'.A.'. move-
ment which has been associated with the publication of
--
Whose Ahamkara is itself a function of the mind, Whose ego it
creates. This Ego is entirely divine.
--
throughout the Whole of this book, in nearly every other sentence.
Transvaluation of values is only the moral aspect of the method
--
that of the prophet Who heard "a going in the mulberry
tops"; and to Browning's phrase, "a bruised, black-
--
them Whom She hath slain.
Here is Wisdom. Let Him that hath Understanding
--
Who is conceived as the feminine counterpart of IT.
This does not agree very well with the common or orthodox
--
St. Hubert appears to have been a saint Who saw a
stag of a mystical or sacred nature.
--
O generation of gossipers! Who shall deliver you
from the Wrath that is fallen upon you?
--
Redeemer, with Whom the Master (Fra. P.) identifies
himself. he permits himself for a moment the pleasure
--
For Whoso findeth the SPRING beneath the earth
maketh the treaders-of-earth to course the heavens.
--
A dowser is one Who practises divination, usually with
the object of finding water or minerals, by means of the
--
place of life, with the result that the horse, Who represents
ordinary animal life, becomes the divine horse Pegasus.
--
Each took the Trowel from his LAP,(25) Whose number
is AN Hundred and Eleven.
--
truth, that I Who love have lost; and how may I
regain?
--
important thing. Those Who allow themselves to wallow
in Samadhi are sorry for it afterwards.
--
harlot Whom he loveth not. For it is LAYLAH that
he loveth...................................
And yet Who knoweth which is Crowley, and which is
FRATER PERDURABO?
--
subtle for the average reader in Oshkosh for Whom
this book is evidently written.)
--
The "fool" is the Fool of the Tarot, Whose number is 0, but refers the the le
tter
--
Paragraph 1 calls upon the Fool of the Tarot, Who is to be referred to Ipsiss
imus,
--
Who told thee, man, that LAYLAH is not Nuit, nd
I hadit?
--
The chapter recurs to the subject of Laylah, Whom
the author exalts above God, in continuation of the
--
O ye Who dwell in the Dark Night of the Soul, beware
most of all of every herald of the Dawn!
O ye Who dwell in the City of the Pyramids beneath
the Night of PAN, remember that ye shall see no
--
Whose Sigil is {Cancer}?
This Work also eats up itself, accomplishes its own
--
to all nations Who employ Arabic figures, the latter
only to experts in deciphering English puns.
--
piety of Frater Perdurabo, Who was frequently
refreshed by hearing the anthems in this chief of the
--
and practice; and the Whole of Mantra-Yoga has been
built on this foundation.
--
Paragraph 2 will easily be understood by those Who have practised
Asana. there is perhaps a sardonic reference to rigor mortis, and certainly
--
is intellectually aware of the severity of the Whole
course. You must give up the world for love, the
--
77 is the number of Laylah (LAILAH), to Whom this
chapter is Wholly devoted.
The first section of the title is an analysis of 77 considered
--
The chapter is a rebuke to those Who can see nothing
but sorrow and evil in the universe.
--
his famous epigram about the youth Who turned his
uncle into Harpocrates. It is a subtle way for Frater P.
--
de Sade, Who gave supreme literary form to the joys of
torture.
--
Who falls far short of MYSELF-I am against
Anarchy, and for Feudalism.
--
Whose swollen mask mutters an atheist's prayer.
What oath may stand the shock of this offence:
--
your Whole energies to progress on the Path.
[175]
--
I distrust any thoughts uttered by any man Whose
health is not robust.
--
to teach people Who need to be taught.
[187]
--
number of Whose house was 89.
He shows that his mind was completely poisoned in
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers from the further disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes other people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left neither writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives, their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by their disciples Who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the spirit.
--
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is the English translation of the Sri Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita, the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees, and visitors, recorded by Mahendranth Gupta, Who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." The conversations in Bengali fill five volumes, the first of which was published in 1897 and the last shortly after M.'s death in 1932. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, has published in two volumes an English translation of selected chapters from the monumental Bengali work. I have consulted these while preparing my translation.
M., one of the intimate disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was present during all the conversations recorded in the main body of the book and noted them down in his diary.
--
I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to English-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the original. This difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, Whose contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of a great seer. Human language is an altogether inadequate vehicle to express supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakrishna was almost illiterate. He never clothed his thoughts in formal language. His words sought to convey his direct realization of Truth. His conversation was in a village patois. Therein lies its charm. In order to explain to his listeners an abstruse philosophy, he, like Christ before him, used with telling effect homely parables and illustrations, culled from his observation of the daily life around him.
The reader will find mentioned in this work many visions and experiences that fall outside the ken of physical science and even psychology. With the development of modern knowledge the border line between the natural and the supernatural is ever shifting its position. Genuine mystical experiences are not as suspect now as they were half a century ago. The words of Sri Ramakrishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of his birth. Savants of Europe have found in his words the ring of universal truth.
--
I have thought it necessary to write a rather lengthy Introduction to the book. In it I have given the biography of the Master, descriptions of people Who came in contact with him, short explanations of several systems of Indian religious thought intimately connected with Sri Ramakrishna's life, and other relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better to understand and appreciate the unusual contents of this book. It is particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu religious thought, should first read carefully the introductory chapter, in order that he may fully enjoy these conversations. Many Indian terms and names have been retained in the book for want of suitable English equivalents. Their meaning is given either in the Glossary or in the foot-notes. The Glossary also gives explanations of a number of expressions unfamiliar to Western readers. The diacritical marks are explained under Notes on Pronunciation.
In the Introduction I have drawn much material from the Life of Sri Ramakrishna, published by the Advaita Ashrama, Myvati, India. I have also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nirvednanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.
--
In the life of the great Saviours and Prophets of the world it is often found that they are accompanied by souls of high spiritual potency Who play a conspicuous part in the furtherance of their Master's mission. They become so integral a part of the life and work of these great ones that posterity can think of them only in mutual association. Such is the case with Sri Ramakrishna and M., Whose diary has come to be known to the world as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English and as Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita in the original Bengali version.
Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known to the readers of the Gospel by his pen name M., and to the devotees as Master Mahashay, was born on the 14th of July, 1854 as the son of Madhusudan Gupta, an officer of the Calcutta High Court, and his wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta. The range of his studies included the best that both occidental and oriental learning had to offer. English literature, history, economics, western philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar, Darsanas, Puranas, Smritis, Jainism, Buddhism, astrology and Ayurveda on the other were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.
He was an educationist all his life both in a spiritual and in a secular sense. After he passed out of College, he took up work as headmaster in a number of schools in succession Narail High School, City School, Ripon College School, Metropolitan School, Aryan School, Oriental School, Oriental Seminary and Model School. The causes of his migration from school to school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on grounds of principles and that often his spiritual mood drew him away to places of pilgrimage for long periods. He worked with some of the most noted public men of the time like Iswar Chandra Vidysgar and Surendranath Banerjee. The latter appointed him as a professor in the City and Ripon Colleges where he taught subjects like English, philosophy, history and economics. In his later days he took over the Morton School, and he spent his time in the staircase room of the third floor of it, administering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as Rector Mahashay. A teacher Who had worked under him writes thus in warm appreciation of his teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him in school could I appreciate what a great educationist he was. He would come down to the level of his students when teaching, though he himself was so learned, so talented. Ordinarily teachers confine their instruction to what is given in books without much thought as to whether the student can accept it or not. But M., would first of all gauge how much the student could take in and by what means. He would employ aids to teaching like maps, pictures and diagrams, so that his students could learn by seeing. Thirty years ago (from 1953) when the question of imparting education through the medium of the mother tongue was being discussed, M. had already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton School." (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I. P. 15.)
Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sdhus, temples and Durga Puja celebrations. The piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response from the impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his life.
--
The Master, Who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your Guru? By His grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At these words the clouds of despair moved away from the horizon of M.'s mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of meaning in life. Referring to this phase of his life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end life, and where, the discovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
After this re-settlement, M's life revolved around the Master, though he continued his professional work as an educationist. During all holidays, including Sundays, he spent his time at Dakshineswar in the Master's company, and at times extended his stay to several days.
--
Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannysins and householders. His own life offered an ideal example for both, and he left behind disciples Who followed the highest traditions he had set in respect of both these ways of life. M., along with Nag Mahashay, exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M. was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen, even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons and two daughters. The responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great Vidysgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to be rather poor, and Vidysgar attri buted it to M's preoccupation with the Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work. M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu', and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter from his friend Sri Surendra Nath Banerjee, asking whether he would like to take up a professorship in the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that gave him the wherewithal to support the family, either for upholding principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards the latter part of his life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution in the city. The Lord has said in the Bhagavad Git that in the case of those Who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the Lord's promise.
Though his children received proper attention from him, his real family, both during the Master's lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees, Sannysins and spiritual aspirants. His life exemplifies the Master's teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the Master's lifetime he spent all his Sundays and other holidays with him and his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music, practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how from a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was established in a life that was both of a Jnni and of a Bhakta. This Jnni-Bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his life that Swami Raghavananda, Who was very closely associated with him during his last six years, remarks: "Among those Who lived with M. in latter days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXXVII. P. 442.)
Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to go to holy places during the Master's lifetime itself and afterwards too as a part of his Sdhan.
--
The life of Sdhan and holy association that he started on at the feet of the Master, he continued all through his life. He has for this reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, his reverence for the Sannysa ideal was Whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin disciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren Who, after the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at Baranagore, and participated in the intense life of devotion and meditation that they followed. At other times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering Sannysin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the road.
After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited Banras, Vrindvan, Ayodhy and other places. At Banras he visited the famous Trailinga Swmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long conversations with Swami Bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and scholarly Sannysins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mother to Banras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannysins at Banras, Vrindvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned to Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his lifetime. Afterwards he does not seem to have gone to any far-off place, but stayed on in his room in the Morton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on the Master and his teachings to the large number of people Who flocked to him after having read his famous Kathmrita known to English readers as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
This brings us to the circumstances that led to the writing and publication of this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in hagiographic literature.
--
In addition to this instinct for diary-keeping, M. had great endowments contri buting to success in this line. Writes Swami Nityatmananda Who lived in close association with M., in his book entitled M - The Apostle and Evangelist: "M.'s prodigious memory combined with his extraordinary power of imagination completely annihilated the distance of time and place for him. Even after the lapse of half a century he could always visualise vividly, scenes from the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Superb too was his power to portray pictures by words."
Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on other days. The devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, Who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, Who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
I now understand why none of us attempted His life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel published from Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1911.)
--
As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the Rishi-like face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the devotees Who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vednta Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M., writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of his Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of his hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of his life he spent in this way in the heart of the great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless devotees Who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers Who read his Kathmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had completed his life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
had sent his devotees Who used to keep company with him, to attend the special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathmrita for an hour. Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, from which he had been suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June 1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'Gurudeva-Ma, Kole tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mother!!)'
SWMI TAPASYNANDA
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication to be crisply brief. Advancing science has now discovered that all the known cases of biological extinction have been caused by overspecialization, Whose concentration of only selected genes sacrifices general adaptability. Thus the specialist's brief for pinpointing brevity is dubious. In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others.
Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war.
--
Today's news consists of aggregates of fragments. Anyone Who has taken part in any event that has subsequently appeared in the news is aware of the gross disparity between the actual and the reported events. The insistence by reporters upon having advance "releases" of what, for instance, convocation speakers are supposedly going to say but in fact have not yet said, automatically discredits the value of the largely prefabricated news. We also learn frequently of prefabricated and prevaricated events of a complex nature purportedly undertaken for purposes either of suppressing or rigging the news, which in turn perverts humanity's tactical information resources. All history becomes suspect. Probably our most polluted resource is the tactical information to which humanity spontaneously reflexes.
Furthermore, today's hyperspecialization in socioeconomic functioning has come to preclude important popular philosophic considerations of the synergetic significance of, for instance, such historically important events as the discovery within the general region of experimental inquiry known as virology that the as-yet popularly assumed validity of the concepts of animate and inanimate phenomena have been experimentally invalidated. Atoms and crystal complexes of atoms were held to be obviously inanimate; the protoplasmic cells of biological phenomena were held to be obviously animate. It was deemed to be common sense that warm- blooded, moist, and soft-skinned humans were clearly not to be confused with hard, cold granite or steel objects. A clear-cut threshold between animate and inanimate was therefore assumed to exist as a fundamental dichotomy of all physical phenomena. This seemingly placed life exclusively within the bounds of the physical.
The supposed location of the threshold between animate and inanimate was methodically narrowed down by experimental science until it was confined specifically within the domain of virology. Virologists have been too busy, for instance, with their DNA-RNA genetic code isolatings, to find time to see the synergetic significance to society of the fact that they have found that no physical threshold does in fact exist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its existence vanished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have persisted right across yesterday's supposed threshold in both directions to permeate one another's-previously perceived to be exclusive- domains. Subsequently, what was animate has become foggier and foggier, and what is inanimate clearer and clearer. All organisms consist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of this threshold must be interpreted to mean that whatever life may be, it has not been isolated and thereby identified as residual in the biological cell, as had been supposed by the false assumption that there was a separate physical phenomenoncalled animate within which life existed. No life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has vanished. Those chemists Who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organisms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote from creating life as are automobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "nonlife" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be discovered. The genetic coding of the design controls of organic systems offers no more explanation of life than did the specifications of the designs of the telephone system's apparatus and operation explain the nature of the life that communicates weightlessly to life over the only physically ponderable telephone system. Whatever else life may be, we know it is weightless. At the moment of death, no weight is lost. All the chemicals, including the chemist's life ingredients, are present, but life has vanished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand.
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
Seeing. We might say that the Whole of life lies in that verb
if not ultimately, at least essentially. Fuller being is closer union :
--
singular point, at a ganglion which commands the Whole fraction
of the cosmos that is at present within reach of our experience.
--
measure, a Whole series of ' senses ' have been necessary, Whose
gradual acquisition, as we shall show, covers and punctuates the
--
experience of man. A Whole which unfolds.
So please do not expect a final explanation of things here, nor
--
pronounced individuality conceals from our eyes the Whole to
which he belongs ; as we look at him our minds incline to break
--
the inclusion of man in his Wholeness in a coherent picture of the
world.
--
action in those of us Who wish, and know how, to plumb the
depths of things, depend on it.
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one Whose understanding is poised? How does he speak, how sit, how walk?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment, the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly from other men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form from the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature, because according to him the divine Reality has to manifest itself in nature. So, all the parts of nature including the physical and the external are to be transformed. In his own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi Who was deeply impressed by his radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
The Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality from the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. The versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
But those Who knew him during the days of the national awakening from 1900 to 1910 could not have these doubts. And even these initial misunderstandings and false notions of others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. The large number of books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the other-worldliness of his Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
This period of outer retirement was one of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity it was also one during which he acted on external events, though he was not dedicated outwardly to a public cause. About his own retirement he writes: "But this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the experience of those Who have advanced in yoga that besides the ordinary forces and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter, there are other forces and powers that can and do act from behind and from above; there is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those Who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to possess or, possessing, to use it and this power is greater than any other and more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he attained to it, he used at first only in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards in a constant action upon the world forces."[1]
Twice he found it necessary to go out of his way to make public pronouncements on important world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation of life is not a part of his Yoga. "The first was in relation to the Second World War. At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene."[2]
--
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities Whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery of personality in some of his writings. Ordinarily by personality we mean something which can be described as "a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character.... In one view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of recognisable qualities expressing a power of being"; another idea regards "personality as a flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being.... But flux of nature and fixity of nature" which some call character "are two aspects of being neither of which, nor indeed both together, can be a definition of personality.... But besides this flux and this fixity there is also a third and occult element, the Person behind of Whom the personality is a self-expression; the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows into the surface formation; the result is a self-expression of being which can no longer be described by fixed qualities, normalities of mood, exact lineaments, or marked out by structural limits."[4]
The gospel of the Supermind which Sri Aurobindo brought to man envisages a new level of consciousness beyond Mind. When this level is attained it imposes a complete and radical reintegration of the human personality. Sri Aurobindo was not merely the exponent but the embodiment of the new, dynamic truth of the Supermind. While exploring and sounding the tremendous possibilities of human personality in his intense spiritual Sadhana, he has shown us that practically there are no limits to its expansion and ascent. It can reach in its growth what appears to man at present as a 'divine' status. It goes without saying that this attainment is not an easy task; there are conditions to be fulfilled for the transformation from the human to the divine.
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(not counting those Who are scattered all over India); and I
have become responsible for all this; I am at the centre of the
--
with them thoroughly. Rather they are hints Whose purpose is
more pragmatic than didactic; they are a kind of moral stimulus
meant to goad and spur on those Who are on the way. It is
true that in my answers many aspects of the question have been
--
these two men seem to be the only ones Who represent Indian
genius. This is very far from the truth, and if they are so well
--
What you have described is pretty much the state of the Whole
world: disorder, confusion, wastage and misery.
--
of dynamic and active peace, so much so that all those Who come
from outside feel as if they were in another world. It is indeed
--
of convenience for the papers and signatures, since it is I Who
"manage" everything, but not because I really own them. You
--
human will there are forces at work Whose origin is not human
and which move consciously towards certain ends. The play of
--
always they find wills which they enslave and individuals Whom
they turn into docile but nearly always unconscious puppets.
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature Who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a leisurely movement, with a profuser apparent waste of material and energy but with a more complete combination by the great
--
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and Whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those Who have not seized the rationale of their process. And if in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start from the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The
--
God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is popularly supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape from life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the Whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious
Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All life is Yoga."
0.02 - II - The Home of the Guru, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Guru-griha-vsa staying in the home of the Guru is a very old Indian ideal maintained by seekers through the ages. The Aranyakas the ancient teachings in the forest-groves are perhaps the oldest records of the institution. It was not for education in the modern sense of the term that men went to live with the Guru; for the Guru is not a 'teacher'. The Guru is one Who is 'enlightened', Who is a seer, a Rishi, one Who has the vision of and has lived the Truth. He has, thus, the knowledge of the goal of human life and has learnt true values in life by living the Truth. He can impart both these to the willing seeker. In ancient times seekers went to the Guru with many questions, difficulties and doubts but also with earnestness. Their questions were preliminary to the quest.
The Master, the Guru, set at rest the puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of realisation of the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of man today even across the ages. They have rightly acquired as everything of the past does a certain sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents men from properly evaluating, and living in, the present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such discourses that they take place in forest-groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever the Master is, there is Light. And guru-griha the house of the Master can be his private dwelling place. So much was this feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of his work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind. But there was no doubt that the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the ancient seekers. Seeking the Light, they came to the dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the age, and found it their spiritual home the home of their parents, for the Mother, his companion in the great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. The modern reader may find that the form of these discourses differs from those of the past but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are his creations. It is in order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to partake of the joy of his company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You are expecting those Who are working with you to be geniuses. It is not quite fair.
I have seen your chit for washing soap. You got the last one on
--
down a mason Who was standing on a plank resting on
that bench. The mason was not injured. The incident
--
But Who is responsible for having given the paint? Was not the
fact that the "gris entretien" must be kept for the doors and windows in Sri Aurobindo's room only, told to those in charge?(!)
--
O Thou Who relievest all suffering and dispersest all
ignorance, O Thou the supreme healer, have pity on me.
--
misunderstand our own ways, we Who are too sincerely seeking
for the Truth expression to be easily understood by ordinary
--
I mean that Mother in that room Who is there in flesh
and blood. If you refer your prayer to some unknown
--
it is easy to understand that someone Who carries in and around
himself peace and goodwill, will in a way impose on others
--
that it is I Who gave the order to make all possible use of the old
pieces of wood.
--
action of Saint Genevieve Who, by the ardour of her prayers,
obtained the intervention of the Divine Grace. This prompted
--
amount to imposing the study of French on all those Who work
in the Building Department, which is impossible.
--
contractor Who, in your eyes, seems to know his job and have
some common sense.
--
But when we came to the details of carrying this out, we always found ourselves confronted with the same difficulty: Whom
to dismiss? And according to your answers the difficulty seemed
--
That will give them time to look for work elsewhere. Those Who
have found work should let us know."
--
(masons, carpenters, painters, coolies, etc.) Whom you positively
want to keep and tell them that the notice which is going to be
--
surrounded by people Who, though they are here to practise
yoga, are still convinced that "a cat is a cat", as we commonly
--
In theory, it is true that everything can be known by identification, but in practice it is rather difficult to apply. The Whole
process is based on the power of concentration. One has to
--
Mother Who decided not to have them removed.
Yes, I hoped that his will could be made to yield on this point,
--
I revealed that Z had asserted that it was he, Y, Who
wanted it done.
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If, then, this inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates and if it constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself, if the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Rather, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make the bodily life also divine must be God's final seal upon His work in the universe. The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from Whom we must flee.
Equally, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility; they too demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphasised by the catholic wisdom of the Upanishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all this that is established in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
--
If the bodily life is what Nature has firmly evolved for us as her base and first instrument, it is our mental life that she is evolving as her immediate next aim and superior instrument. This in her ordinary exaltations is the lofty preoccupying thought in her; this, except in her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity, is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free from the trammels of her first vital and physical realisations. For here in man we have a distinction which is of the utmost importance. He has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason. Mind in man is first emmeshed in the life of the body, where in the plant it is entirely involved and in animals always imprisoned. It accepts this life as not only the first but the Whole condition of its activities and serves its needs as if they were the entire aim of existence. But the bodily life in man is a base, not the aim, his first condition and not his last determinant. In the just idea of the ancients man is essentially the thinker, the Manu, the mental being Who leads the life and the body,3 not the animal Who is led by them. The true human existence, therefore, only begins when the intellectual mentality emerges out of the material and we begin more and more to live in the mind independent of the nervous and physical obsession and in the measure of that liberty are able to accept rightly and rightly to use the life of the body. For freedom and not a skilful subjection is the true means of mastery. A free, not a compulsory acceptance of the conditions, the enlarged and sublimated conditions of our physical being, is the high human ideal. But beyond this intellectual mentality is the divine.
The mental life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a
--
common possession. In actual appearance it would seem as if it were only developed to the fullest in individuals and as if there were great numbers and even the majority in Whom it is either a small and ill-organised part of their normal nature or not evolved at all or latent and not easily made active.
Certainly, the mental life is not a finished evolution of Nature; it is not yet firmly founded in the human animal. The sign is that the fine and full equilibrium of vitality and matter, the sane, robust, long-lived human body is ordinarily found only in races or classes of men Who reject the effort of thought, its disturbances, its tensions, or think only with the material mind.
Civilised man has yet to establish an equilibrium between the fully active mind and the body; he does not normally possess it.
--
Moreover the Whole trend of modern thought and modern endeavour reveals itself to the observant eye as a large conscious effort of Nature in man to effect a general level of intellectual equipment, capacity and farther possibility by universalising the opportunities which modern civilisation affords for the mental life. Even the preoccupation of the European intellect, the protagonist of this tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of existence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient basis in man's physical being and vital energies and in his material environment for his full mental possibilities. By the spread of education, by the advance of the backward races, by the elevation of depressed classes, by the multiplication of labour-saving appliances, by the movement
The Three Steps of Nature
towards ideal social and economic conditions, by the labour of Science towards an improved health, longevity and sound physique in civilised humanity, the sense and drift of this vast movement translates itself in easily intelligible signs. The right or at least the ultimate means may not always be employed, but their aim is the right preliminary aim, - a sound individual and social body and the satisfaction of the legitimate needs and demands of the material mind, sufficient ease, leisure, equal opportunity, so that the Whole of mankind and no longer only the favoured race, class or individual may be free to develop the emotional and intellectual being to its full capacity. At present the material and economic aim may predominate, but always, behind, there works or there waits in reserve the higher and major impulse.
And when the preliminary conditions are satisfied, when the great endeavour has found its base, what will be the nature of that farther possibility which the activities of the intellectual life must serve? If Mind is indeed Nature's highest term, then the entire development of the rational and imaginative intellect and the harmonious satisfaction of the emotions and sensibilities must be to themselves sufficient. But if, on the contrary, man is more than a reasoning and emotional animal, if beyond that which is being evolved, there is something that has to be evolved, then it may well be that the fullness of the mental life, the suppleness, flexibility and wide capacity of the intellect, the ordered richness of emotion and sensibility may be only a passage towards the development of a higher life and of more powerful faculties which are yet to manifest and to take possession of the lower instrument, just as mind itself has so taken possession of the body that the physical being no longer lives only for its own satisfaction but provides the foundation and the materials for a superior activity.
The assertion of a higher than the mental life is the Whole foundation of Indian philosophy and its acquisition and organisation is the veritable object served by the methods of Yoga.
Mind is not the last term of evolution, not an ultimate aim, but, like body, an instrument. It is even so termed in the language of
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
But, over and above newcomers, some local people and the few inmates of the house used to have informal talks with Sri Aurobindo in the evening. In the beginning the inmates used to go out for playing football, and during their absence known local individuals would come in and wait for Sri Aurobindo. Afterwards regular meditations began at about 4 p.m. in which practically all the inmates participated. After the meditation all of the members and those Who were permitted shared in the evening sitting. This was a very informal gathering depending entirely upon Sri Aurobindo's leisure.
When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved to No. 9 Rue de la Marine in 1922 the same routine of informal evening sittings after meditation continued. I came to Pondicherry for Sadhana in the beginning of 1923. I kept notes of the important talks I had with the four or five disciples Who were already there. Besides, I used to take detailed notes of the Evening Talks which we all had with the Master. They were not intended by him to be noted down. I took them down because of the importance I felt about everything connected with him, no matter how insignificant to the outer view. I also felt that everything he did would acquire for those Who would come to know his mission a very great significance.
As years passed the evening sittings went on changing their time and often those disciples Who came from outside for a temporary stay for Sadhana were allowed to join them. And, as the number of sadhaks practising the Yoga increased, the evening sittings also became more full, and the small verandah upstairs in the main building was found insufficient. Members of the household would gather every day at the fixed time with some sense of expectancy and start chatting in low tones. Sri Aurobindo used to come last and it was after his coming that the session would really commence.
He came dressed as usual in dhoti, part of which was used by him to cover the upper part of his body. Very rarely he came out with chaddar or shawl and then it was "in deference to the climate" as he sometimes put it. At times for minutes he would be gazing at the sky from a small opening at the top of the grass-curtains that covered the verandah upstairs in No. 9, Rue de la Marine. How much were these sittings dependent on him may be gathered from the fact that there were days when more than three-fourths of the time passed in complete silence without any outer suggestion from him, or there was only an abrupt "Yes" or "No" to all attempts at drawing him out in conversation. And even when he participated in the talk one always felt that his voice was that of one Who does not let his Whole being flow into his words; there was a reserve and what was left unsaid was perhaps more than what was spoken. What was spoken was what he felt necessary to speak.
Very often some news-item in the daily newspaper, town-gossip, or some interesting letter received either by him or by a disciple, or a question from one of the gathering, occasionally some remark or query from himself would set the ball rolling for the talk. The Whole thing was so informal that one could never predict the turn the conversation would take. The Whole house therefore was in a mood to enjoy the freshness and the delight of meeting the unexpected. There were peals of laughter and light talk, jokes and criticism which might be called personal, there was seriousness and earnestness in abundance.
These sittings, in fact, furnished Sri Aurobindo with an occasion to admit and feel the outer atmosphere and that of the group living with him. It brought to him the much-needed direct contact of the mental and vital make-up of the disciples, enabling him to act on the atmosphere in general and on the individual in particular. He could thus help to remould their mental make-up by removing the limitations of their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it was the Divine Consciousness that he allowed to act. All along behind the outer manifestation that appeared human, there was the influence and presence of the Divine.
--
From 1918 to 1922, we gathered at No. 41, Rue Franois Martin, called the Guest House, upstairs, on a broad verandah into which four rooms opened and Whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3' x 1' covered with a blue cotton cloth. That is where Sri Aurobindo used to sit in a hard wooden chair behind the table with a few chairs in front for the visitors or for the disciples.
From 1922 to 1926, No. 9, Rue de la Marine, where he and the Mother had shifted, was the place where the sittings were held. There, also upstairs, was a less broad verandah than at the Guest House, a little bigger table in front of the central door out of three, and a broad Japanese chair, the table covered with a better cloth than the one in the Guest House, a small flower vase, an ash-tray, a block calendar indicating the date and an ordinary time-piece, and a number of chairs in front in a line. The evening sittings used to be after meditation at 4 or 4.30 p.m. After 24 November 1926, the sittings began to get later and later, till the limit of 1 o'clock at night was reached. Then the curtain fell. Sri Aurobindo retired completely after December 1926, and the evening sittings came to a close.
--
Then, on 23 November 1938, I got up at 2 o'clock to prepare hot water for the Mother's early bath because the 24th was Darshan day. Between 2.20 and 2.30 the Mother rang the bell. I ran up the staircase to be told about an accident that had happened to Sri Aurobindo's thigh and to be asked to fetch the doctor. This accident brought about a change in his complete retirement, and rendered him available to those Who had to attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12 years during which his retirement was modified owing to circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible for him to have direct physical contacts with the world outside.
The long period of the Second World War with all its vicissitudes passed through these years. It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his energies to the task of saving humanity from the threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson of solid work done for humanity without any thought of return or reward, without even letting humanity know what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how He comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how he Who was at one time in his own words "not merely a non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism" bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill, listening carefully to the health-bulletins! It was the work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the world.
There were no formal evening sittings during these years, but what appeared to me important in our informal talks was recorded and has been incorporated in this book.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
they are the imaginations of a child Who knows nothing of
life, of its misery and ugliness. For life is not as it is portrayed
--
I spent the Whole day in this state of dullness because I
no longer imagine things as before.
--
it was you Who had such a sad little face and it is probably your
own sadness that you saw reflected in my eyes. I know life too
--
In the psychological domain, only the patients Who do not want
to recover, do not recover. Perhaps it is the same for physical
--
interpretation on all I do. Who has poured this poison of doubt
and dissatisfaction into your heart? Who has taken away at
once your happiness, your simple joy of life and your beautiful
--
all the people you met and Whom you spoke to, what you told
them, etc. It will be a very good exercise in French and at the
--
you are practising calligraphy! Who has taught you to write so
beautifully?
--
Emile Coué (1857 - 1926), French doctor of Nancy Who developed a system of cure
by auto-suggestion (Couéism).
--
Mother, do You know, it is I Who ironed these two
blouses without spoiling them? This is the first time I
--
where I can live constantly with X and with all Who love
You.
--
beautiful for You we ought to be happy, no matter Who
made it, myself or someone else; I mean that upon seeing
--
ought to be very happy, and all those Who love my sweet
Mother will naturally be happy.
--
To [my little smile] Whose precious help prevents my feet from
being hurt by the stones on the way.
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Since this is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the Whole method and aim of our existence must work by the interaction of these three elements in the being. As a result of their separate formulation in Nature, man has open to him a choice between three kinds of life, the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their discords into a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the Whole godhead, the perfect Man.
In ordinary Nature they have each their own characteristic and governing impulse.
--
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whether family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good from any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, neither to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is neither to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all other means on his surroundings so that the Whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
It follows that the object of the material life must be to fulfil, above all things, the vital aim of Nature. The Whole aim of the material man is to live, to pass from birth to death with as much comfort or enjoyment as may be on the way, but anyhow to live.
He can subordinate this aim, but only to physical Nature's other instincts, the reproduction of the individual and the conservation of the type in the family, class or community. Self, domesticity, the accustomed order of the society and of the nation are the constituents of the material existence. Its immense importance in the economy of Nature is self-evident, and commensurate is the importance of the human type which represents it. He assures her of the safety of the framework she has made and of the orderly continuance and conservation of her past gains.
But by that very utility such men and the life they lead are condemned to be limited, irrationally conservative and earthbound. The customary routine, the customary institutions, the inherited or habitual forms of thought, - these things are the life-breath of their nostrils. They admit and jealously defend the changes compelled by the progressive mind in the past, but combat with equal zeal the changes that are being made by it in the present. For to the material man the living progressive thinker is an ideologue, dreamer or madman. The old Semites Who stoned the living prophets and adored their memories when dead, were the very incarnation of this instinctive and unintelligent principle in Nature. In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born, it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature's inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.
Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in his scheme of society a place, venerable though not often effective, for the priest or the learned theologian Who can be trusted to provide him with a safe and ordinary spiritual pabulum. But to the man Who would assert for himself the liberty of spiritual experience and the spiritual life, he assigns, if he admits him at all, not the vestment of the priest but the robe of the Sannyasin. Outside society let him exercise his dangerous freedom. So he may even serve as a human lightning-rod receiving the electricity of the Spirit and turning it away from the social edifice.
Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life. The creation by this means of progressive societies in Europe is one of the greatest triumphs of Mind over Matter. But the physical nature has its revenge; for the progress made tends to be of the grosser and more outward kind and its attempts at a higher or a more rapid movement bring about great wearinesses, swift exhaustions, startling recoils.
--
1 Who dwells in Dream, the inly conscious, the enjoyer of abstractions, the Brilliant.
Mandukya Upanishad 4.
--
This mixing with life may, however, be pursued for the sake of the individual mind and with an entire indifference to the forms of the material existence or the uplifting of the race. This indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean discipline and is not entirely absent from the Stoic; and even altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But this too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the Whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the promise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof from the transient. For the spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
But if it is often difficult for the mental life to accommodate itself to the dully resistant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the spiritual existence to live on in a world that appears full not of the Truth but of every lie and illusion, not of Love and Beauty but of an encompassing discord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious selfishness and sin? Therefore the spiritual life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw from the material existence and reject it either Wholly and physically or in the spirit. It sees this world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine either in a far-off heaven or beyond where there is no world and no life. It separates itself inwardly, if not also physically, from the world's impurities; it asserts the spiritual reality in a spotless isolation. This withdrawal renders an invaluable service to the material life itself by forcing it to regard and even to bow down to something that is the direct negation of its own petty ideals, sordid cares and egoistic self-content.
But the work in the world of so supreme a power as spiritual force cannot be thus limited. The spiritual life also can return upon the material and use it as a means of its own greater fullness. Refusing to be blinded by the dualities, the appearances, it can seek in all appearances whatsoever the vision of the same Lord, the same eternal Truth, Beauty, Love, Delight. The
--
2 The Unified, in Whom conscious thought is concentrated, Who is all delight and enjoyer of delight, the Wise. . . . He is the Lord of all, the Omniscient, the inner Guide.
Mandukya Upanishad 5, 6.
--
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual life in the world, and it is its real mission, to change the material life into its own image, the image of the Divine. Therefore, besides the great solitaries Who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers Who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls Who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration. Ordinarily, the effort is concentrated on a mental and moral change in humanity, but it may extend itself also to the alteration of the forms of our life and its institutions so that they too may be a better mould for the inpourings of the Spirit. These attempts have been the supreme landmarks in the progressive development of human ideals and the divine preparation of the race. Every one of them, whatever its outward results, has left Earth more capable of Heaven and quickened in its tardy movements the evolutionary Yoga of Nature.
In India, for the last thousand years and more, the spiritual life and the material have existed side by side to the exclusion of the progressive mind. Spirituality has made terms for itself with Matter by renouncing the attempt at general progress. It has obtained from society the right of free spiritual development for all Who assume some distinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that life as man's goal and those Who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the spiritual symbolism of life and its ultimate destination. On the other hand, there was conceded to society the right of inertia and immobile self-conservation. The concession destroyed much of the value of the terms. The religious mould being fixed, the formal reminder tended to become a routine and to lose its living sense. The constant attempts to change the mould by new sects and religions ended only in a new routine or a modification of the old; for the saving element of the free and active mind had been exiled. The material life, handed over to the Ignorance, the purposeless and endless duality, became a leaden and dolorous yoke from which flight was the only escape.
The schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind from the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of life the culmination. The teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. The pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
--
We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the Whole sense of God's intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.
Therefore from a concrete view of human life in its threefold potentialities we come to the same conclusion that we had drawn from an observation of Nature in her general workings and the three steps of her evolution. And we begin to perceive a complete aim for our synthesis of Yoga.
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The boy X Who was working in the Building Department
was dismissed some two days back, not for the crime
--
No, he is very rude and a boy Who can almost willingly hurt a
dog is likely to do the same with the cow and calf.
--
A man Who is cruel with beasts is worse than a beast.
2 April 1934
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is this truth which makes necessary to every philosophy of Yoga the conception of the Ishwara, Lord, supreme Soul or supreme Self, towards Whom the effort is directed and Who gives the illuminating touch and the strength to attain. Equally true is the complementary idea so often enforced by the Yoga of devotion that as the Transcendent is necessary to the individual and sought after by him, so also the individual is necessary in a sense to the Transcendent and sought after by It. If the
Bhakta seeks and yearns after Bhagavan, Bhagavan also seeks and yearns after the Bhakta.1 There can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human seeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion without the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional and aesthetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme Will, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic may be our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled to accept this omnipresent Trinity.
--
Its method is a direct commerce between the human Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha Who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name.
Hathayoga aims at the conquest of the life and the body Whose combination in the food sheath and the vital vehicle constitutes, as we have seen, the gross body and Whose equilibrium is the foundation of all Nature's workings in the human being. The equilibrium established by Nature is sufficient for the normal egoistic life; it is insufficient for the purpose of the Hathayogin.
For it is calculated on the amount of vital or dynamic force necessary to drive the physical engine during the normal span of human life and to perform more or less adequately the various workings demanded of it by the individual life inhabiting this frame and the world-environment by which it is conditioned.
--
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the Whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped to overcome
--
Purusha Who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established.
This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery.
--
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our Whole existence.
The triple Path of devotion, knowledge and works attempts the province which Rajayoga leaves unoccupied. It differs from
Rajayoga in that it does not occupy itself with the elaborate training of the Whole mental system as the condition of perfection, but seizes on certain central principles, the intellect, the heart, the will, and seeks to convert their normal operations by turning them away from their ordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on the Divine. It
The Conditions of the Synthesis
--
But this exclusive consummation is not the sole or inevitable result of the Path of Knowledge. For, followed more largely and with a less individual aim, the method of Knowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one's own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this realisation a yet further enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness utilisable for the perception of the one and unique Object of knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such a method might well lead to the elevation of the Whole range of human intellect
The Systems of Yoga
--
Devotion may be so used as to lead to the elevation of the Whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in our humanity.
The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
that it is not I Who am working, so I say "we". I am
your child.
--
Love from your little mother Who is always with you.
15 March 1934
--
to make you a strong and conscious man Who is master of
himself - that is, in control of his lower nature and capable of
--
My child, my child, why this great sadness? Is it because someone to Whom you had given your friendship has withdrawn for
reasons that he thinks are very profound?
--
and turned in on yourself. The Whole thing is to choose your
relationships well. You must choose to enter into relation only
with those Whose contact does not veil my presence. This is the
important point which should never be forgotten. All that leads
--
Your mother Who loves you.
15 May 1934
--
or materially. All those Who have been able to create something
beautiful or useful have always been persons Who have known
how to discipline themselves.
--
I am your true mother Who will give birth in you to the true
being, the being Who is free, peaceful, strong and happy always,
independently of all circumstances.
--
not eat either yesterday evening or the Whole day today. Why? If
you are sick, you must be taken care of. I shall send the doctor
--
to grieve your mother Who loves you and wants only your own
good?
--
follows, success always comes to those Who are strong, courageous, enduring. And you know that here our force and our help
are always available to you; you have only to learn to make use
--
to conquer the adversary Who is trying to draw you towards the
lower animal consciousness.
Love from your mother Who never leaves you.
15 May 1938
--
know what my path is, then Who does?
My dear child,
--
your destiny is. But it is you Who must become aware of it
and understand it so that you can realise it. In what way do
--
Your mother Who loves you.
30 March 1939
--
"He Who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite."
Never forget this promise of Sri Aurobindo and keep
--
The vital is a most bothersome character Who prefers to be
bad rather than to go unnoticed. You must teach him that he is
--
is a very frequent tendency in those Whose vital is insufficiently
developed and seeks violent sensations in the hope of escaping
--
Love from your mother Who is always there ready to help
you.
--
Transform my Whole nature. I shall be what you
want me to be. Give me your peace, your silence in my
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Hathayoga and Rajayoga are thus successively practised. And in a recent unique example, in the life of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine realisation, taking, as it were, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after another and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to return to the heart of the Whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be generalised. Its object also was special and temporal, to exemplify in the great and decisive experience of a master-soul the truth, now most necessary to humanity, towards which a world long divided into jarring sects and schools is with difficulty labouring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all disciplines labour in their different ways towards one supreme experience. To know, be and possess
The Conditions of the Synthesis
--
This system is the way of the Tantra. Owing to certain of its developments Tantra has fallen into discredit with those Who are not Tantrics; and especially owing to the developments of its left-hand path, the Vama Marga, which not content with exceeding the duality of virtue and sin and instead of replacing them by spontaneous rightness of action seemed, sometimes, to make a method of self-indulgence, a method of unrestrained social immorality. Nevertheless, in its origin, Tantra was a great and puissant system founded upon ideas which were at least partially true. Even its twofold division into the right-hand and left-hand paths, Dakshina Marga and Vama Marga, started from a certain profound perception. In the ancient symbolic sense of the words Dakshina and Vama, it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda, - Nature in man liberating itself by right discrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities and Nature in man
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
Prakriti and turn them towards the Divine. But the normal action of Nature in us is an integral movement in which the full complexity of all our elements is affected by and affects all our environments. The Whole of life is the Yoga of Nature. The
Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the Whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape from the world to God, synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a synthesis becomes necessary.
The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our Whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense
God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana1 as well as the Master of the Yoga by Whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the
Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces
Sadhana, the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin Who seeks by that practice the siddhi.
The Conditions of the Synthesis
its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the Whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.
In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its Whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be Wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the Whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine
Strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for our weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It "makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills." The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother Who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet, in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in Whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of
Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but
--
Therefore, also, an integral liberation. Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact and identification of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sayujya-mukti, by which it can become free2 even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the salokya-mukti by which the Whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of
Sachchidananda; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the Divine, sadharmya-mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
--
As the Jivanmukta, Who is entirely free even without dissolution of the bodily life in a final Samadhi.
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
The widest synthesis of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those Whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
And the second night, or purification, pertains to those Who are already
proficient, occurring at the time when God desires to bring them to the state
--
comprising the Whole of the mystical life and ending only with the Divine embraces
of the soul transformed in God through love.
--
The Passive Nights, in which it is God Who accomplishes the purgation, are
based upon this incapacity. Souls 'begin to enter' this dark night
--
the state of progressiveswhich is that of those Who are already
contemplativesto the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at
--
passing, upon certain imperfections found in those Who are about to enter it and
which it removes by the process of purgation. Such travellers are still untried
proficients, Who have not yet acquired mature habits of spirituality and Who
therefore still conduct themselves as children. The imperfections are examined one
--
ascent of the Mount on Whose summit the soul attains to transforming union.
Chapters xii and xiii detail with great exactness the benefits that the soul receives
--
Flame of Love, they are not so completely knit into one Whole as is this great double
treatise. They lose both in flexibility and in substance through the closeness with
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a young sadhak Who later became a teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.1
I hope and believe Your work does not depend upon
--
This is, however, indispensable for yoga; and he Who has so great
an aim as to be united with the Divine and to manifest Him, how
--
There are people Who say one must unite closely with
the outer nature to be able to taste the joy which the
--
The Whole world is against me and I am in despair.
Why do you want to think the Whole world is against you? This
is childish.
--
May my Whole being be only that love which wants to
give itself, and which leads me to You.
--
become even more a good child Who will be able to tell me in all
sincerity and truth: "I love You and I am Yours for all eternity."
--
Not only of the soul, but of the Whole being, without reserve.
Who is there to hold me back far from You?
--
and that I have to divide my time among all those Who have need
of me.
--
well established. He in Whom this contact is well established is
always happy.
--
After all, my Whole life is consecrated to You; I shall
remain very calm without bothering about what happens
--
Who think that You call only those sadhaks Who cannot
receive Your Grace from afar; and that it is a sign of
weakness on the part of those Who see You from time to
time.
--
a Divine full of wisdom and knowledge. He Who fears meets a
severe Divine, and he Who is trusting finds the Divine a friend
and protector... and so on in the infinite variety of possibilities.
--
and never refuses what is offered to Him Whole-heartedly; thus
you may live in the peace of the certitude that you are accepted
--
It is not this person or that Who attracts you... it is the eternal
feminine in the lower nature which attracts the eternal masculine in the lower nature and creates an illusion in the mind; it
--
My beloved Mother, the Whole day I thought of nothing
else except that red rose which signifies "Human passions changed into love for the Divine". I want to know
--
is He Who will make of us what He wants in His infinite wisdom.
My sweet beloved Mother, I read in the Conversations:
--
Ashram; but those Who are without work are certainly so because they do not like to work; and for that disease it is very
difficult to find a remedy - it is called laziness...
--
only my Whole being does not accept it.
If you repeat it with sufficient constancy, the recalcitrant part
--
One must have no fear, victory is for him Who is without fear; I
am always with you to guide and protect you.
--
I am speaking of the peace experienced by those Who are utterly
insensible and indifferent to the misfortunes of the world and
--
the suffering of others, those Who have turned their hearts to
stones and are incapable of compassion.
--
Surely those Who have courage must have some for those Who
have none.
--
expect to control others, above all, children, Who feel it immediately when someone is not master of himself?
The students cannot learn their lessons even when they
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
To the place where he (well I knew Who!) was awaiting me
A place where none appeared.
--
6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept Wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To the sadhak Who was the dentist at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
during the 1930s and then served from 1938 to 1950 as one of
--
not your mother Who loves you?...
3 January 1937
--
your Grace is our sole refuge and to Whom shall we
turn but to you for our protection? But may your Grace
--
I know that it is only the weak Who complain. The strong never
do because they can't be hurt. So I never attach much importance
--
very kind to your little child Who loves you and is happy.
My very dear child, live in my love, feel it, be filled with it and
--
It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mother Who
asks nothing in return for what she gives.
--
the love of the Mother Who does not ask for anything
in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a selffulfilled life. But I have yet to achieve everything, yet to
--
without a Guru Who will lead me to Her Feet?
I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri
--
be possible only for those Who have gone beyond all
egoism. But if my Mother chooses to see only the good
--
them shine throughout your Whole being and the clouds, if any,
will soon disappear.
--
me. What shall I say to you, you Whose very nature is an
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
--
me remain always there so that I may fill your Whole being with
light and love and joy.
--
Avatar of the Divine Mother Whom I adore, but Whom
I know not except by Her lotus-feet. That is the reason
--
O! How could I question your love, you Who are
the soul of truth and love and goodness?
--
grow into a full sun and illuminate the Whole being. You can be
sure of my love, you can be sure of my help, and our blessings
--
anyone like you in the Whole world? LOVE.
Love, love, love to my very dear child; all the joy, all the light,
--
know of Whom I was thinking? I was thinking of Kali
standing before me ready to give a boon! In fact, I was
--
war against my Whole outer being. And, anyway, it seems
too late now to begin at the beginning and teach myself
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the immanent Divine, the Divine Who is at the centre of each
being and of Whom the psychic being is the sheath and the
expression. By the psychic change one passes from the individual
--
emotion of those Who see these images that sometimes gives
them the appearance of a power or an action they do not possess in themselves. Hence the necessity of never being afraid and
--
Those Who have had the experience have always said that
the difficulties and sufferings of the path are not real, but a
--
Likewise, in the case of those Who degenerate and fall back,
the circumstances of their lives also worsen.
--
contact with each of those Who are present, I identify myself
with the Supreme Lord and dissolve myself completely in Him.
--
the music Whose sound alone remains; and with the sound all
the feelings, all the movements of emotion can be captured,
--
different personality which the photo has captured and Whose
image it conveys.
--
moment, it cannot in any way reproduce the Whole personality.
5 November 1959
--
asleep that it seems to be Wholly devoid of consciousness; at any
rate, as in the stone, the mineral kingdom, the consciousness
--
being can take the attitude of the witness Who observes without
reacting or participating, then one can notice the effect that the
--
origin Who have been charged with supervising, directing and
This question and the three that follow are based on terms used by Sri Aurobindo in
--
are those Who have an organised supramental being and supramental life, even admitting that there are any at all. Certainly
the very recent descent of the first elements of the Supermind
--
a homogeneous Whole, culminating in the yoga of supramental
realisation.
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo says: "Yoga is nothing but practical psychology."1 What does this sentence mean? The Whole
paragraph is not clear to me.
--
Sri Aurobindo has written: "He Who chooses the Infinite
has been chosen by the Infinite."3 And what about the
--
reach, in an attempt to portray this or that visitor Who has come
to us. But most often, the picture we succeed in making of our
--
those Who are sincere in their aspiration will remain here and
receive all the help needed to be able to change in themselves
--
a mother Who is very close to you, Who loves and understands
you; that is why it is easy for you to approach me with a loving
--
terrestrial evolution, until the time comes when the psychic being, fully formed and Wholly awakened, becomes the conscious
sheath of the soul around which it is formed.
--
How does the soul influence a being Who is normally
unconscious?
--
manifests it, but it can truly govern the Whole being only when
the ego has been dissolved.
--
it. But there are many persons Who, without giving anything,
Words of the Mother - I, CWM, Vol. 13, p. 29.
--
drink from the cup of the gods Who are immortal.
To receive the divine grace, not only must one have a great
--
we are in contact with a Presence to Whom we feel an
imperative need to give ourselves and Who is the object
of all our love and adoration. This Presence I have called
the "Personal Divine", Who is in fact none other than
You. I know that it is not possible to have a complete
--
and habits of street-urchins might like to suggest and Who seek
in what Sri Aurobindo has written an excuse for their excesses.
--
Before the children came, only those Who wanted to do sadhana
were admitted to the Ashram, and the only habits and activities
--
give them to X Who makes good use of them.
And if you are telling me that the photos are damaged, this
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key to the problem. The advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the phenomenon may appear to be, can become a thing of practical actuality, precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. The descent of the Divine into the ordinary human nature in order to purify and transform it and be lodged there is the Whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and dissolution there in the end. The descent of the Divine Consciousness to prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if considered at all, was not the main theme of the past efforts and achievements. Furthermore, the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness for there are many varieties of divine consciousness but of the Divine's own consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out this evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect Who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
Another question that troubles and perplexes the ordinary human mind is as to the time when the thing will be done. Is it now or a millennium hence or at some astronomical distance in future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy. In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the Whole eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be grudged to such a labour for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what would perhaps take years to accomplish in the natural course, one can expect the work to be done sooner rather than later. Indeed, the ideal is one of here and nowhere upon this earth of material existence and now in this life, in this very bodynot hereafter or elsewhere. How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on this side or the other do not matter very much.
As to the extent of realisation, we say again that that is not a matter of primary consideration. It is not the quantity but the substance that counts. Even if it were a small nucleus it would be sufficient, at least for the beginning, provided it is the real, the genuine thing
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Well, the view expressed in these words is not a new revelation. It has been the cry of suffering humanity through the ages. Man has borne his cross since the beginning of his creation through want and privation, through disease and bereavement, through all manner of turmoil and tribulation, and yetmirabile dictuat the same time, in the very midst of those conditions, he has been aspiring and yearning for something else, ignoring the present, looking into the beyond. It is not the prosperous and the more happily placed in life Who find it more easy to turn to the higher life, it is not the wealthiest Who has the greatest opportunity to pursue a spiritual idea. On the contrary, spiritual leaders have thought and experienced otherwise.
Apart from the well-recognised fact that only in distress does the normal man think of God and non-worldly things, the real matter, however, is that the inner life is a thing apart and follows its own line of movement, does not depend upon, is not subservient to, the kind of outer life that one may happen to live under. The Bible says indeed, "Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn"... But the Upanishad declares, on the other hand, that even as one lies happily on a royal couch, bathes and anoints himself with all the perfumes of the world, has attendants all around and always to serve him, even so, one can be full of the divine consciousness from the crown of the head to the tip of his toe-nail. In fact, a poor or a prosperous life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual life. All the miseries and immediate needs of a physical life do not and cannot detain or delay one from following the path of the ideal; nor can all your riches be a burden to your soul and overwhelm it, if it chooses to walk onit can not only walk, but soar and fly with all that knapsack on its back.
--
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry outthey bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and Wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking from a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. The Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: "These beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. The spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Another humanity is rising out of the present human species. The beings of the new order are everywhere and it is they Who will soon hold sway over earth, be the head and front of the terrestrial evolution in the cycle that is approaching as it was with man in the cycle that is passing away. What will this new order of being be like? It will be what man is not, also what man is. It will not be man, because it will overstep the limitations and incapacities inherent in man; and it will be man by the realisation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of his terrestrial life.
The New Man will be Master and not slave. He will be master, first, of himself and then of the world. Man as he actually is, is but a slave. He has no personal voice or choice; the determining soul, the Ishwara, in him is sleep-bound and hushed. He is a mere plaything in the hands of nature and circumstances. Therefore it is that Science has become his supreme Dharmashastra; for science seeks to teach us the moods of Nature and the methods of propitiating her. Our actual ideal of man is that of the cleverest slave. But the New Man will have found himself and by and according to his inner will, mould and create his world. He will not be in awe of Nature and in an attitude of perpetual apprehension and hesitation, but will ground himself on a secret harmony and union that will declare him as the lord. We will recognise the New Man by his very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of his expression.
--
This mastery will be effected not merely in will, but in mind and heart also. For the New Man will know not by the intellect which is egocentric and therefore limited, not by ratiocination which is an indirect and doubtful process, but by direct vision, an inner communion, a soul revelation. The new knowledge will be vast and profound and creative, based as it will be upon the reality of things and not upon their shadows. Truth will shine through every experience and every utterance"a truth shall have its seat on our speech and mind and hearing", so have the Vedas said. The mind and intellect will not be active and constructive agents but the luminous channel of a self-luminous knowledge. And the heart too which is now the field of passion and egoism will be cleared of its noise and obscurity; a serener sky will shed its pure warmth and translucent glow. The knot will be rent asunderbhidyate hridaya granthih and the vast and mighty streams of another ocean will flow through. We will love not merely those to Whom we are akin but God's creatures, one and all; we will love not with the yearning and hunger of a mortal but with the wide and intense Rasa that lies in the divine identity of souls.
And the new society will be based not upon competition, nor even upon co-operation. It will not be an open conflict, neither will it be a convenient compromise of rival individual interests. It will be the organic expression of the collective soul of humanity, working and achieving through each and every individual soul its most wide-winging freedom, manifesting the godhead that is, proper to each and every one. It will be an organisation, most delicate and subtle and supple, the members of which will have no need to live upon one another but in and through one another. It will be, if you like, a henotheistic hierarchy in which everyone will be the greatest, since everyone is all and all everyone simultaneously.
--
The breath and the surge of the new creation cannot be mistaken. The question that confronts us today is no longer whether the New Man, the Super-humanity, will come or if at all, when; but the question we have to answer is Who among us are ready to be its receptacle, its instrument and embodiment.
***
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the Whole life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light - is the Whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart from it all the rest would have no meaning.
Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in life.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Like one Who searches for a bygone self
And only meets the corpse of his desire.
--
Alone Who stares at the future's covered face,
Man lifted up the burden of his fate.
--
From all of Whom she was the star and stay;
Too great to impart the peril and the pain,
--
As one Who watching over men left blind
Takes up the load of an unwitting race,
Harbouring a foe Whom with her heart she must feed,
Unknown her act, unknown the doom she faced,
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the Whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
This has been the highest consummation, the supreme goal which the purest spiritual experience and the deepest aspiration of the human consciousness generally sought to attain. But in this view, the world or creation or Nature came in the end to be looked upon as fundamentally a product of Ignorance: ignorance and suffering and incapacity and death were declared to be the very hallmark of things terrestrial. The Light that dwells above and beyond can be made to shed for a while some kind of lustre upon the mortal darkness but never altogether to remove or change itto live in the full light, to be in and of the Light means to pass beyond. Not that there have not been other strands and types of spiritual experiences and aspirations, but the one we are considering has always struck the major chord and dominated and drowned all the rest.
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is He in the sun Who is ageless and deathless,
And into the midnight His shadow is thrown;
--
To be His arms Whom I have sought; I saw
How earth was made
--
Who was not anyone nor had a form,
Nor yet was formless. Neither hate nor love
--
But Who has found Him or what arms possessed ?4
This is sheer philosophy, told with an almost philosophical bluntnessmay be, but is it mere philosophy and mediocre poetry? Once more listen to the Upanishadic lines:
--
He dwells within us all Who dwells not in
Aught that is.5
--
We have been speaking of philosophy and the philosophic manner. But what are the exact implications of the words, let us ask again. They mean nothing more and nothing lessthan the force of thought and the mass of thought content. After all, that seems to be almost the Whole difference between the past and the present human consciousness in so far at least as it has found expression in poetry. That element, we wish to point out, is precisely what the old-world poets lacked or did not care to possess or express or stress. A poet meant above all, if not all in all, emotion, passion, sensuousness, sensibility, nervous enthusiasm and imagination and fancy: remember the classic definition given by Shakespeare of the poet
Of imagination all compact.. . .
--
The heart and its urges, the vital and its surges, the physical impulsesit is these of which the poets sang in their infinite variations. But the mind proper, that is to say, the higher reflective ideative mind, was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry. I am not forgetting the so-called Metaphysicals. The element of metaphysics among the Metaphysicals has already been called into question. There is here, no doubt, some theology, a good dose of mental cleverness or conceit, but a modern intellectual or rather rational intelligence is something other, something more than that. Even the metaphysics that was commandeered here had more or less a decorative value, it could not be taken into the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred to the Upanishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in this connection. They are in a sense truly metaphysical: they bypass the mind and the mental powers, get hold of a higher mode of consciousness, make a direct contact with truth and beauty and reality. It was Buddha's credit to have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness, to have brought into play the power of the rational intellect and used it in support of the spiritual experience. That is not to say that he was the very first person, the originator Who initiated the movement; but at least this seems to be true that in him and his au thentic followers the movement came to the forefront of human consciousness and attained the proportions of a major member of man's psychological constitution. We may remember here that Socrates, Who started a similar movement of rationalisation in his own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rationalised knowledge that seems to me to be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. The combination is risky, but not impossible. In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle to a considerable degree. Still, the power of intelligence and reason shown by Vyasa is of a special order: it is a sublimated function of the faculty, something aloof and other-worldly"introvert", a modern mind would term it that is to say, something a priori, standing in its own au thenticity and self-sufficiency. A modern intelligence would be more scientific, let us use the word, more matter-of-fact and sense-based: the mental light should not be confined in its ivory tower, however high that may be, but brought down and placed at the service of our perception and appreciation and explanation of things human and terrestrial; made immanent in the mundane and the ephemeral, as they are commonly called. This is not an impossibility. Sri Aurobindo seems to have done the thing. In him we find the three terms of human consciousness arriving at an absolute fusion and his poetry is a wonderful example of that fusion. The three terms are the spiritual, the intellectual or philosophical and the physical or sensational. The intellectual, or more generally, the mental, is the intermediary, the Paraclete, as he himself will call it later on in a poem9 magnificently exemplifying the point we are trying to make out the agent Who negotiates, bridges and harmonises the two other firmaments usually supposed to be antagonistic and incompatible.
Indeed it would be wrong to associate any cold ascetic nudity to the spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo. His poetry is philosophic, abstract, no doubt, but every philosophy has its practice, every abstract thing its concrete application,even as the soul has its body; and the fusion, not mere union, of the two is very characteristic in him. The deepest and unseizable flights of thought he knows how to clo the with a Kalidasian richness of imagery, or a Keatsean gusto of sensuousness:
--
And the Whole aspiration of striving mortality finds its echo in:
A song not master of its note, a cry
--
Who art thou, warrior armed gloriously
Like the sun?
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The difference between living organism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthetises, new-createsgives more than what it receives; matter only sums up, gathers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or other must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order to be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new but simply reflect what is given. The Whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative.
So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity. If we are not to be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an aristocratic virtue, that it belongs only to the chosen few. A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but such a creator does not appear very frequently. A Shakespeare or a Napoleon is a rare phenomenon; they are, in reality, an exception to the general run of mankind. It is enough if we others can understand and follow themMahajano yena gatahlet the great souls initiate and create, the common souls have only to repeat and imitate.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Whole world could take refuge in her single heart.
3.38
--
Almost they saw Who lived within her light
Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres
--
One dealt with her Who meets the burdened great.
4.10
--
Or one more pawn Who comes destined to be pushed
One slow move forward on a measureless board
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To come to this Yoga merely with the idea of being a superman would be an act of vital egoism which would defeat its own object. Those Who put this object in the front of their preoccupations invariably come to grief, spiritually and otherwise. The aim of this Yoga is, first, to enter into the divine consciousness by merging into it the separative ego (incidentally, in doing so one finds one's true individual self which is not the limited, vain and selfish human ego but a portion of the Divine) and, secondly, to bring down the supramental consciousness on earth to transform mind, life and body. All else can be only a result of these two aims, not the primary object of the Yoga.
The only creation for which there is any place here is the supramental, the bringing of the divine Truth down on the earth, not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Who comes along singing and steering his boat?
It seems a face familiar.
--
one can explain that it is the Christ calling the Church or God appealing to the human soul or one can simply find in it nothing more than a man pining for his woman. Anyhow I would not call it spiritual poetry or even mystic poetry. For in itself it does not carry any double or oblique meaning, there is no suggestion that it is applicable to other fields or domains of consciousness: it is, as it were, monovalent. An allegory is never mysticism. There is more mysticism in Wordsworth, even in Shelley and Keats, than in Spenser, for example, Who stands in this respect on the same ground as Bunyan in his The Pilgrim's Progress. Take Wordsworth as a Nature-worshipper,
Breaking the silence of the seas
--
This is spiritual matter and spiritual manner that can never be improved upon. This is spiritual poetry in its quintessence. I am referring naturally here to the original and not to the translation which can never do full justice, even at its very best, to the poetic value in question. For apart from the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language, the instrument used by the poet, is also involved. It may well be what is comparatively easy and natural in the language of the gods (devabhasha) would mean a tour de force, if not altogether an impossibility, in a human language. The Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the Rishis, that is to say, those Who lived and moved and had their being in the spiritual consciousness. The Hebrew or even the Zend does not seem to have reached that peak, that absoluteness of the spiritual tone which seems inherent in the Indian tongue, although those too breathed and grew in a spiritual atmosphere. The later languages, however, Greek or Latin or their modern descendants, have gone still farther from the source, they are much nearer to the earth and are suffused with the smell and effluvia of this vale of tears.
Among the ancients, strictly speaking, the later classical Lucretius was a remarkable phenomenon. By nature he was a poet, but his mental interest lay in metaphysical speculation, in philosophy, and unpoetical business. He turned away from arms and heroes, wrath and love and, like Seneca and Aurelius, gave himself up to moralising and philosophising, delving 'into the mystery, the why and the how and the whither of it all. He chose a dangerous subject for his poetic inspiration and yet it cannot be said that his attempt was a failure. Lucretius was not a religious or spiritual poet; he was rather Marxian,atheistic, materialistic. The dialectical materialism of today could find in him a lot of nourishment and support. But whatever the content, the manner has made a Whole difference. There was an idealism, a clarity of vision and an intensity of perception, which however scientific apparently, gave his creation a note, an accent, an atmosphere high, tense, aloof, ascetic, at times bordering on the supra-sensual. It was a high light, a force of consciousness that at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual. For the basic principle of Lucretius' inspiration is a large thought-force, a tense perception, a taut nervous reactionit is not, of course, the identity in being with the inner realities which is the hallmark of a spiritual consciousness, yet it is something on the way towards that.
There have been other philosophical poets, a good number of them since thennot merely rationally philosophical, as was the vogue in the eighteenth century, but metaphysically philosophical, that is to say, inquiring not merely into the phenomenal but also into the labyrinths of the noumenal, investigating not only what meets the senses, but also things that are behind or beyond. Amidst the earlier efflorescence of this movement the most outstanding philosopher poet is of course Dante, the Dante of Paradiso, a philosopher in the mediaeval manner and to the extent a lesser poet, according to some. Goe the is another, almost in the grand modern manner. Wordsworth is full of metaphysics from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe although his poetry, perhaps the major portion of it, had to undergo some kind of martyrdom because of it. And Shelley, the supremely lyric singer, has had a very rich undertone of thought-content genuinely metaphysical. And Browning and Arnold and Hardyindeed, if we come to the more moderns, we have to cite the Whole host of them, none can be excepted.
We left out the Metaphysicals, for they can be grouped as a set apart. They are not so much metaphysical as theological, religious. They have a brain-content stirring with theological problems and speculations, replete with scintillating conceits and intricate fancies. Perhaps it is because of this philosophical burden, this intellectual bias that the Metaphysicals went into obscurity for about two centuries and it is precisely because of that that they are slowly coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective"introvert"and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics.
--
The religious, the mystic or the spiritual man was, in the past, more or Jess methodically and absolutely non-intellectual and anti-intellectual: but the modern age, the age of scientific culture, is tending to make him as strongly intellectual: he has to explain, not only present the object but show up its mechanism alsoexplain to himself so that he may have a total understanding and a firmer grasp of the thing which he presents and explains to others as well Who demand a similar approach. He feels the necessity of explaining, giving the rationality the rationale the science, of his art; for without that, it appears to him, a solid ground is not given to the structure of his experience: analytic power, preoccupation with methodology seems inherent in the modern creative consciousness.
The philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting history with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of katharsis. As man has risen from his exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental poise, in the same way his creative activities too have taken this new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and artistic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes from time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is further to rise from the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, his life and activities and along with that his artistic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For this transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and idealistic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, this intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off other higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be established between the normal and the transcendental. The result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upanishads, or, on the other, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India Who, as is shown in his Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the missing link of Thought Power. The exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the basis of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates Who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphasis of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. The moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. The rationalising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
The earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the other world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and other where. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
--
This, I say, is something different from the religious and even from the mystic. It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. The mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the spiritual, the spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least this is what distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness from the ancient, that is, Upanishadic spiritual consciousness. The Upanishad gives expression to the spiritual consciousness in its original and pristine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can satisfy and satisfy Wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the Whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. The stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Aristotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
--
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair: for it expresses the normal man's perceptions and feelings and experiences, human loves and hates and desires and ambitions. True. And yet there has also always been an attempt, a tendency to deal with them in such a way as can bring calm and puritykatharsisnot trouble and confusion. That has been the purpose of all Art from the ancient days. Besides, there has been a growth and development in the historic process of this katharsis. As by the sublimation of his bodily and vital instincts and impulses., man is gradually growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness, even so the artistic expression of his creative activity has followed a similar line of transformation. The first and original transformation happened with religious poetry. The religious, one may say, is the profane inside out; that is to say, the religious man has almost the same tone and temper, the same urges and passions, only turned Godward. Religious poetry too marks a new turn and development of human speech, in taking the name of God human tongue acquires a new plasticity and flavour that transform or give a new modulation even to things profane and mundane it speaks of. Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral idealism. A parallel process of katharsis is found in another class of poetic creation, viz., the allegory. Allegory or parable is the stage when the higher and inner realities are expressed Wholly in the modes and manner, in the form and character of the normal and external, when moral, religious or spiritual truths are expressed in the terms and figures of the profane life. The higher or the inner ideal is like a loose clothing upon the ordinary consciousness, it does not fit closely or fuse. In the religious, however, the first step is taken for a mingling and fusion. The mystic is the beginning of a real fusion and a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher. The philosopher poet follows another line for the same katharsisinstead of uplifting emotions and sensibility, he proceeds by thought-power, by the ideas and principles that lie behind all movements and give a pattern to all things existing. The mystic can be of either type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic, although often the two are welded together and cannot be very well separated. Let us illustrate a little:
The spacious firmament on high,
--
Whom thou conceiv'st, conceiv'd; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It might be said, however, that the guarantee or sanction of Reason does not lie in the extent of its application, nor can its subjective nature (or ego-centric predication, as philosophers would term it) vitiate the validity of its conclusions. There is, in fact, an inherent unity and harmony between Reason and Reality. If we know a little of Reality, we know the Whole; if we know the subjective, we know also the objective. As in the part, so in the Whole; as it is within, so it is without. If you say that I will die, you need not wait for my actual death to have the proof of your statement. The generalising power inherent in Reason is the guarantee of the certitude to which it leads. Reason is valid, as it does not betray us. If it were such as anti-intellectuals make it out to be, we would be making nothing but false steps, would always remain entangled in contradictions. The very success of Reason is proof of its being a reliable and perfect instrument for the knowledge of Truth and Reality. It is beside the mark to prove otherwise, simply by analysing the nature of Reason and showing the fundamental deficiencies of that nature. It is rather to the credit of Reason that being as it is, it is none the less a successful and trustworthy agent.
Now the question is, does Reason never fail? Is it such a perfect instrument as intellectualists think it to be? There is ground for serious misgivings. Reason says, for example, that the earth revolves round the sun: and reason, it is argued, is right, for we see that all the facts are conformableto it, even facts that were hitherto unknown and are now coming into our ken. But the difficulty is that Reason did not say that always in the past and may not say that always in the future. The old astronomers could explain the universe by holding quite a contrary theory and could fit into it all their astronomical data. A future scientist may come and explain the matter in quite a different way from either. It is only a choice of workable theories that Reason seems to offer; we do not know the fact itself, apart perhaps from exactly the amount that immediate sense-perception gives to each of us. Or again, if we take an example of another category, we may ask, does God exist? A candid Rationalist would say that he does not know although he has his own opinion about the matter. Evidently, Reason cannot solve all the problems that it meets; it can judge only truths that are of a certain type.
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This much as regards what Sri Aurobindo is not doing; let us now turn and try to understand what he is doing. The distinguished man of action speaks of conquering Nature and fighting her. Adopting this war-like imagery, we can affirm that Sri Aurobindo's work is just such a battle and conquest. But the question is, what is nature and what is the kind of conquest that is sought, how are we to fight and what are the required arms and implements? A good general should foresee all this, frame his plan of campaign accordingly and then only take the field. The above-mentioned leader proposes ceaseless and unselfish action as the way to fight and conquer Nature. He Who speaks thus does not know and cannot mean what he says.
European science is conquering Nature in a way. It has attained to a certain kind and measure, in some fields a great measure, of control and conquest; but however great or striking it may be in its own province, it does not touch man in his more intimate reality and does not bring about any true change in his destiny or his being. For the most vital part of nature is the region of the life-forces, the powers of disease and age and death, of strife and greed and lustall the instincts of the brute in man, all the dark aboriginal forces, the forces of ignorance that form the very groundwork of man's nature and his society. And then, as we rise next to the world of the mind, we find a twilight region where falsehood masquerades as truth, where prejudices move as realities, where notions rule as ideals.
--
Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts from the perception of a Power that is beyond the ordinary nature yet is its inevitable master, a fulcrum, as we have said, outside the earth. For what is required first is the discovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness in man which will bring about by the very pressure and working out of its self-rule an absolute reversal of man's nature. It is the Asuras Who are now holding sway over humanity, for man has allowed himself so long to be built in the image of the Asura; to dislodge the Asuras, the Gods in their sovereign might have to be forged in the human being and brought into play. It is a stupendous task, some would say impossible; but it is very far removed from quietism or passivism. Sri Aurobindo is in retirement, but it is a retirement only from the outward field of present physical activities and their apparent actualities, not from the true forces and action of life. It is the retreat necessary to one Who has to go back into himself to conquer a new plane of creative power,an entrance right into the world of basic forces, of fundamental realities, into the flaming heart of things where all actualities are born and take their first shape. It is the discovery of a power-house of tremendous energism and of the means of putting it at the service of earthly life.
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is rather the nucleus of a new life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been discovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a mistake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, Who possess the call within and are impelled by the spirit of the future, have a chance of serving this high attempt and great realisation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
***
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Covered the All-Wise Who leads the unseeing world.
Affiliated to cosmic Space and Time
--
Through which his Glory shines for Whom we were made
And we break into the infinity of God.
--
The ever-living Whom we name as dead
Could leave their glory beyond death and birth
--
As a child Who learns to walk can walk not long,
Replace the titan will for ever to climb,
--
Made Whole the fragment-being we are here.
7.15
--
In Whose black pall the Eternal wraps his head
That he may act unknown in cosmic Time.
--
Out of the rich wonders and the intricate Whorls
Of the spirit's dance with Matter as its mask
--
Appeared of the Architect Who builds in trance.
The original Desire born in the Void
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite superficial, an instrument of the Spirit for the play of life. Those Who live and act in the normal consciousness are governed entirely by the common movements of the mind and are naturally subject to grief and joy and anxiety and desire or to everything else that makes up the ordinary stuff of life.
Mental quiet and happiness they can get, but it can never be permanent or secure. But the spiritual consciousness is all light, peace, power and bliss. If one can live entirely in it, there is no question; these things become naturally and securely his.
--
I must say in view of something you seem to have said to your father that it is not the object of the one to be a great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human life is to establish over the Whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the Whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it is to enthrone the rule of the purified and sattwic buddhi, follow the dharma, fulfilling one's own svadharma and doing the work proper to one's capacities, and satisfy kama and artha under the control of the buddhi and the dharma. The object of the divine life, on the other hand, is to realise one's highest self or to realise
God and to put the Whole being into harmony with the truth of the highest self or the law of the divine nature, to find one's own divine capacities great or small and fulfil them in life as a sacrifice to the highest or as a true instrument of the divine
Sakti.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Divine will bring Ananda, therefore it must be for the Ananda that we seek the union, is not true and has no force. One Who loves a queen may know that if she returns his love it will bring him power, position, riches and yet it need not be for the power, position, riches that he seeks her love. He may love her for herself and could love her equally if she were not a queen; he might have no hope of any return whatever and yet love her, adore her, live for her, die for her simply because she is she. That has happened and men have loved women without any hope of enjoyment or result, loved steadily, passionately after age has come and beauty has gone. Patriots do not love their country only when she is rich, powerful, great and has much to give them; their love for country has been most ardent, passionate, absolute when the country was poor, degraded, miserable, having nothing to give but loss, wounds, torture, imprisonment, death as the wages of her service; yet even knowing that they would never see her free, men have lived, served and died for her - for her own sake, not for what she could give. Men have loved Truth for her own sake and for what they could seek or find of her, accepted poverty, persecution, death itself; they have been content even to seek for her always, not finding, and yet never given up the search.
That means what? That men, country, Truth and other things besides can be loved for their own sake and not for anything else, not for any circumstance or attendant quality or resulting enjoyment, but for something absolute that is either in them or behind their appearance and circumstance. The Divine is more than a man or woman, a stretch of land or a creed, opinion, discovery or principle. He is the Person beyond all persons, the
01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Supreme Spirit, Purushottama, Who holds in himself the dual reality of Brahman and the world, is the master of action Who acts but in actionlessness, the Lord in Whom and through Whom the universes and their creatures live and move and have their being. Karmayoga is union in mind and soul and body with the Lord of action in the execution of his cosmic purpose. And this union is effected through a transformation of the human nature, through the revelation of the Divine Prakriti and its descent upon and possession of the inferior human vehicle.
Arrived so far, we now find, if we look back, a change in the Whole perspective. Karma and even Karmayoga, which hitherto seemed to be the pivot of the Gita's teaching, retire somewhat into the background and present a diminished stature and value. The centre of gravity has shifted to the conception of the Divine Nature, to the Lord's own status, to the consciousness above the three Gunas, to absolute consecration of each limb of man's humanity to the Supreme Purusha for his descent and incarnation and play in and upon this human world.
The higher secret of the Gita lies really in the later chapters, the earlier chapters being a preparation and passage to it orpartial and practical application. This has to be pointed out, since there is a notion current which seeks to limit the Gita's effective teaching to the earlier part, neglecting or even discarding the later portion.
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The worship of man as something essentially and exclusively human necessitates as a corollary, the other doctrine, viz the deification of Reason; and vice versa. Humanism and Scientism go together and the Whole spirit and mentality of the age that is passing may be summed up in those two words. So Nietzsche says, "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and Whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation Whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon earth among men was precisely the nation, endowed with a clear and logical intellect, that was the very embodiment of rationality and reasonableness. As a matter of fact, it would not be far, wrong to say that it is the Hellenic culture which has been moulding humanity for ages; at least, it is this which has been the predominating factor, the vital and dynamic element in man's nature. Greece when it died was reborn in Rome; Rome, in its return, found new life in France; and France means Europe. What Europe has been and still is for the world and humanity one knows only too much. And yet, the Hellenic genius has not been the sole motive power and constituent element; there has been another leaven which worked constantly within, if intermittently without. If Europe represented mind and man and this side of existence, Asia always reflected that which transcends the mind the spirit, the Gods and the Beyonds.
However, we are concerned more with the immediate past, the mentality that laid its supreme stress upon the human rationality. What that epoch did not understand was that Reason could be overstepped, that there was something higher, something greater than Reason; Reason being the sovereign faculty, it was thought there could be nothing beyond, unless it were draison. The human attribute par excellence is Reason. Exactly so. But the fact is that man is not bound by his humanity and that reason can be transformed and sublimated into other more powerful faculties.
--
Reason is insufficient and unsatisfactory because, as Bergson explains, it does not and cannot embrace life as a Whole, seize man and the world in an integral realisation. The greater part of the vast mystery of existence escapes its envergure. Reason is that faculty which is for analysing, defining, classifying and fixing things. It is a power that has grown in man in order that he may best manipulate the things of the world. It is utilitarian, practical in its nature and outlook. And as practical dealing requires that things should be stable and separate entities, therefore Reason cannot but see things in solid and in the fragments of a solid. It cuts up existence into distinct parts and diverse elements; and these again it seeks to relate and aggregate, in accordance with what it calls "laws". Such a process has been necessary for man in conducting life and action successfully. Originally a bye-product of active life, Reason gradually separated itself and came finally to have an independent status and function, became or sought to become the instrument of knowledge, of Truth.
But although Reason has been and is useful for the practical, we may say almost, the manual aspect of life, life itself it leaves unexplained and uncomprehended. For life is mobility, a continuous flow that has nowhere any gap or stop and things have in reality no isolated or separate existence, they merge and mingle into one another and form an indissoluble Whole. Therefore the forms and categories that Reason imposes upon existence are more or less arbitrary; they are shackles that seek to bind up and limit life, but are often rent asunder in the very effort. So the civilisation that has its origin in Reason and progresses with discoveries and inventionsdevices for artfully manipulating naturehas been essentially and pre-eminently mechanical in its structure and outlook. It has become more and more efficient perhaps, but less and less soul-inspired, less and less-endowed with the free-flowing sap of organic growth and vitality.
So instead of the rational principle, the new age wants the principle of Nature or Life. Even as regards knowledge Reason is not the only, nor the best instrument. For animals have properly no reason; the nature-principle of knowledge in the animal is Instinct the faculty that acts so faultlessly, so marvellously where Reason can only pause and be perplexed. This is not to say that man is to or can go back to this primitive and animal function; but certainly he can replace it by something akin which is as natural and yet purified and self-consciousillumined instinct, we may say or Intuition, as Bergson terms it. And Nietzsche's definition of the Superman has also a similar orientation and significance; for, according to him, the Superman is man Who has outgrown his Reason, Who is not bound by the standards and the conventions determined by Reason for a special purpose. The Superman is one Who has gone beyond "good and evil," Who has shaken off from his nature and character elements that are "human, all too human" Who is the embodiment of life-force in its absolute purity and strength and freedom.
This then is the mantra of the new ageLife with Intuition as its guide and not Reason and mechanical efficiency, not Man but Superman. The right mantra has been found, the principle itself is irreproachable. But the interpretation, the application, does not seem to have been always happy. For, Nietzsche's conception of the Superman is full of obvious lacunae. If we have so long been adoring the intellectual man, Nietzsche asks us, on the other hand, to deify the vital man. According to him the superman is he Who has (1) the supreme sense of the ego, (2) the sovereign will to power and (3) Who lives dangerously. All this means an Asura, that is to say, one Who has, it may be, dominion over his animal and vital impulsions in order, of course, that he may best gratify them but Who has not purified them. Purification does not necessarily mean, annihilation but it does mean sublimation and transformation. So if you have to transcend man, you have to transcend egoism also. For a conscious egoism is the very characteristic of man and by increasing your sense of egoism you do not supersede man but simply aggrandise your humanity, fashion it on a larger, a titanic scale. And then the will to power is not the only will that requires fulfilment, there is also the will to knowledge and the will to love. In man these three fundamental constitutive elements coexist, although they do it, more often than not, at the expense of each other and in a state of continual disharmony. The superman, if he is to be the man " Who has surmounted himself", must embody a poise of being in which all the three find a fusion and harmonya perfect synthesis. Again, to live dangerously may be heroic, but it is not divine. To live dangerously means to have eternal opponents, that is to say, to live ever on the same level with the forces you want to dominate. To have the sense that one has to fight and control means that one is not as yet the sovereign lord, for one has to strive and strain and attain. The supreme lord is he Who is perfectly equanimous with himself and with the world. He has not to batter things into a shape in order to create. He creates means, he manifests. He wills and he achieves"God said 'let there be light' and there was light."
As a matter of fact, the superman is not, as Nietzsche thinks him to be, the highest embodiment of the biological force of Nature, not even as modified and refined by the aesthetic and aristocratic virtues of which the higher reaches of humanity seem capable. For that is after all humanity only accentuated in certain other fundamentally human modes of existence. It does not carry far enough the process of surmounting. In reality it is not a surmounting but a new channelling. Instead of the ethical and intellectual man, we get the vital and aesthetic man. It may be a change but not a transfiguration.
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I said that the supreme artist is superconscious: his consciousness withdraws from the normal mental consciousness and becomes awake and alive in another order of consciousness. To that superior consciousness the artist's mentalityhis ideas and dispositions, his judgments and valuations and acquisitions, in other words, his normal psychological make-upserves as a channel, an instrument, a medium for transcription. Now, there are two stages, or rather two lines of activity in the processus, for they may be overlapping and practically simultaneous. First, there is the withdrawal and the in-gathering of consciousness and then its reappearance into expression. The consciousness retires into a secret or subtle worldWords-worth's "recollected in tranquillity"and comes back with the riches gathered or transmuted there. But the purity of the gold thus garnered and stalled in the artistry of words and sounds or lines and colours depends altogether upon the purity of the channel through which it has to pass. The mental vehicle receives and records and it can do so to perfection if it is perfectly in tune with what it has to receive and record; otherwise the transcription becomes mixed and blurred, a faint or confused echo, a poor show. The supreme creators are precisely those in Whom the receptacle, the instrumental faculties offer the least resistance and record with absolute fidelity the experiences of the over or inner consciousness. In Shakespeare, in Homer, in Valmiki the inflatus of the secret consciousness, the inspiration, as it is usually termed, bears down, sweeps away all obscurity or contrariety in the recording mentality, suffuses it with its own glow and puissance, indeed resolves it into its own substance, as it were. And the difference between the two, the secret norm and the recording form, determines the scale of the artist's creative value. It happens often that the obstruction of a too critically observant and self-conscious brain-mind successfully blocks up the flow of something supremely beautiful that wanted to come down and waited for an opportunity.
Artists themselves, almost invariably, speak of their inspiration: they look upon themselves more or less as mere instruments of something or some Power that is beyond them, beyond their normal consciousness attached to the brain-mind, that controls them and which they cannot control. This perception has been given shape in myths and legends. Goddess Saraswati or the Muses are, however, for them not a mere metaphor but concrete realities. To what extent a poet may feel himself to be a mere passive, almost inanimate, instrumentnothing more than a mirror or a sensitive photographic plateis illustrated in the famous case of Coleridge. His Kubla Khan, as is well known, he heard in sleep and it was a long poem very distinctly recited to him, but when he woke up and wanted to write it down he could remember only the opening lines, the rest having gone completely out of his memory; in other words, the poem was ready-composed somewhere else, but the transmitting or recording instrument was faulty and failed him. Indeed, it is a common experience to hear in sleep verses or musical tunes and what seem then to be very beautiful things, but which leave no trace on the brain and are not recalled in memory.
--
But the Yogi is a Wholly conscious being; a perfect Yogi is he Who possesses a conscious and willed control over his instruments, he silences them, as and when he likes, and makes them convey and express with as little deviation as possible truths and realities from the Beyond. Now the question is, is it possible for the poet also to do something like that, to consciously create and not to be a mere unconscious or helpless channel? Conscious artistry, as we have said, means to be conscious on two levels of consciousness at the same time, to be at home in both equally and simultaneously. The general experience, however, is that of "one at a time": if the artist dwells more in the one, the other retires into the background to the same measure. If he is in the over-consciousness, he is only half-conscious in his brain consciousness, or even not conscious at allhe does not know how he has created, the sources or process of his creative activity, he is quite oblivious of them" gone through them all as if per saltum. Such seems to have been the case with the primitives, as they are called, the elemental poetsShakespeare and Homer and Valmiki. In some others, Who come very near to them in poetic genius, yet not quite on a par, the instrumental intelligence is strong and active, it helps in its own way but in helping circumscribes and limits the original impulsion. The art here becomes consciously artistic, but loses something of the initial freshness and spontaneity: it gains in correctness, polish and elegance and has now a style in lieu of Nature's own naturalness. I am thinking of Virgil and Milton and Kalidasa. Dante's place is perhaps somewhere in between. Lower in the rung where the mental medium occupies a still more preponderant place we have intellectual poetry, poetry of the later classical age Whose representatives are Pope and Dryden. We can go farther down and land in the domain of versificationalthough here, too, there can be a good amount of beauty in shape of ingenuity, cleverness and conceit: Voltaire and Delille are of this order in French poetry.
The three or four major orders I speak of in reference to conscious artistry are exampled characteristically in the history of the evolution of Greek poetry. It must be remembered, however, at the very outset that the Greeks as a race were nothing if not rational and intellectual. It was an element of strong self-consciousness that they brought into human culture that was their special gift. Leaving out of account Homer Who was, as I said, a primitive, their classical age began with Aeschylus Who was the first and the most spontaneous and intuitive of the Great Three. Sophocles, Who comes next, is more balanced and self-controlled and pregnant with a reasoned thought-content clothed in polished phrasing. We feel here that the artist knew what he was about and was exercising a conscious control over his instruments and materials, unlike his predecessor Who seemed to be completely carried away by the onrush of the poetic enthousiasmos. Sophocles, in spite of his artistic perfection or perhaps because of it, appears to be just a little, one remove, away from the purity of the central inspiration there is a veil, although a thin transparent veil, yet a veil between which intervenes. With the third of the Brotherhood, Euripides, we slide lower downwe arrive at a predominantly mental transcription of an experience or inner conception; but something of the major breath continues, an aura, a rhythm that maintains the inner contact and thus saves the poetry. In a subsequent age, in Theocritus, for example, poetry became truly very much 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought', so much of virtuosity and precocity entered into it; in other words, the poet then was an excessively self-conscious artist. That seems to be the general trend of all literature.
But should there be an inherent incompatibility between spontaneous creation and self-consciousness? As we have seen, a harmony and fusion can and do happen of the superconscious and the normally conscious in the Yogi. Likewise, an artist also can be wakeful and transparent enough so that he is conscious on both the levels simultaneouslyabove, he is conscious of the source and origin of his inspiration, and on the level plain he is conscious of the working of the instrument, how the vehicle transcribes and embodies what comes from elsewhere. The poet's consciousness becomes then divalent as it werethere is a sense of absolute passivity in respect of the receiving apparatus and coupled and immisced with it there is also the sense of dynamism, of conscious agency as in his secret being he is the master of his apparatus and one with the Inspirerin other words, the poet is both a seer (kavih) and a creator or doer (poits).
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The modern critical self-consciousness in the artist originated with the Romantics. The very essence of Romanticism is curiosity the scientist's pleasure in analysing, observing, experimenting, changing the conditions of our reactions, mental or sentimental or even nervous and physical by way of discovery of new and unforeseen or unexpected modes of "psychoses" or psychological states. Goethe, Wordsworth, Stendhal represented a mentality and initiated a movement which led logically to the age of Hardy, Housman and Bridges and in the end to that of Lawrence and Joyce, Ezra Pound and Eliot and Auden. On the Continent we can consider Flaubert as the last of the classicists married to the very quintessence of Romanticism. A hard, self-regarding, self-critical mentality, a cold scalpel-like gaze that penetrates and upturns the reverse side of things is intimately associated with the poetic genius of Mallarm and constitutes almost the Whole of Valry's. The impassioned lines of a very modern poet like Aragon are also characterised by a consummate virtuosity in chiselled artistry, conscious and deliberate and willed at every step and turn.
The consciously purposive activity of the poetic consciousness in fact, of all artistic consciousness has shown itself with a clear and unambiguous emphasis in two directions. First of all with regard to the subject-matter: the old-world poets took things as they were, as they were obvious to the eye, things of human nature and things of physical Nature, and without questioning dealt with them in the beauty of their normal form and function. The modern mentality has turned away from the normal and the obvious: it does not accept and admit the "given" as the final and definitive norm of things. It wishes to discover and establish other norms, it strives to bring about changes in the nature and condition of things, envisage the shape of things to come, work for a brave new world. The poet of today, in spite of all his effort to remain a pure poet, in spite of Housman's advocacy of nonsense and not-sense being the essence of true Art, is almost invariably at heart an incorrigible prophet. In revolt against the old and established order of truths and customs, against all that is normally considered as beautiful,ideals and emotions and activities of man or aspects and scenes and movements of Natureagainst God or spiritual life, the modern poet turns deliberately to the ugly and the macabre, the meaningless, the insignificant and the triflingtins and teas, bone and dust and dustbin, hammer and sicklehe is still a prophet, a violent one, an iconoclast, but one Who has his own icon, a terribly jealous being, that seeks to pull down the past, erase it, to break and batter and knead the elements in order to fashion out of them something conforming to his heart's desire. There is also the class Who have the vision and found the truth and its solace, Who are prophets, angelic and divine, messengers and harbingers of a new beauty that is to dawn upon earth. And yet there are others in Whom the two strains mingle or approach in a strange way. All this means that the artist is far from being a mere receiver, a mechanical executor, a passive unconscious instrument, but that he is supremely' conscious and master of his faculties and implements. This fact is doubly reinforced when we find how much he is preoccupied with the technical aspect of his craft. The richness and variety of patterns that can be given to the poetic form know no bounds today. A few major rhythms were sufficient for the ancients to give full expression to their poetic inflatus. For they cared more for some major virtues, the basic and fundamental qualitiessuch as truth, sublimity, nobility, forcefulness, purity, simplicity, clarity, straightforwardness; they were more preoccupied with what they had to say and they wanted, no doubt, to say it beautifully and powerfully; but the modus operandi was not such a passion or obsession with them, it had not attained that almost absolute value for itself which modern craftsmanship gives it. As technology in practical life has become a thing of overwhelming importance to man today, become, in the Shakespearean phrase, his "be-all and end-all", even so the same spirit has invaded and pervaded his aesthetics too. The subtleties, variations and refinements, the revolutions, reversals and inventions which the modern poet has ushered and takes delight in, for their own sake, I repeat, for their intrinsic interest, not for the sake of the subject which they have to embody and clothe, have never been dream by Aristotle, the supreme legislator among the ancients, nor by Horace, the almost incomparable craftsman among the ancients in the domain of poetry. Man has become, to be sure, a self-conscious creator to the pith of his bone.
Such a stage in human evolution, the advent of Homo Faber, has been a necessity; it has to serve a purpose and it has done admirably its work. Only we have to put it in its proper place. The salvation of an extremely self-conscious age lies in an exceeding and not in a further enhancement or an exclusive concentration of the self-consciousness, nor, of course, in a falling back into the original unconsciousness. It is this shift in the poise of consciousness that has been presaged and prepared by the conscious, the scientific artists of today. Their task is to forge an instrument for a type of poetic or artistic creation completely new, unfamiliar, almost revolutionary which the older mould would find it impossible to render adequately. The yearning of the human consciousness was not to rest satisfied with the familiar and the ordinary, the pressure was for the discovery of other strands, secret stores of truth and reality and beauty. The first discovery was that of the great Unconscious, the dark and mysterious and all-powerful subconscient. Many of our poets and artists have been influenced by this power, some even sought to enter into that region and become its denizens. But artistic inspiration is an emanation of Light; whatever may be the field of its play, it can have its origin only in the higher spheres, if it is to be truly beautiful and not merely curious and scientific.
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By Whom impelled does the mind fall to its target, what is the agent that is behind the eye and sees through the eyes, what is the hearing and what the speech that their respective sense organs do not and cannot convey and record adequately or at all?
Like the modern scientist the artist or craftsman too of today has become a philosopher, even a mystic philosopher. The subtler and higher ranges of consciousness are now the object of inquiry and investigation and expression and revelation for the scientist as well as for the artist. The external sense-objects, the phenomenal movements are symbols and signposts, graphs and pointer-readings of facts and realities that lie hidden, behind or beyond. The artist and the scientist are occult alchemists. What to make of this, for example:
--
But the more truly modern mind looks at the thing in a slightly different way. The good and the evil are not, to it, contrary to each other: one does not deny or negate the other. They are intermixed, fused in a mysterious identity. The best and the worst are but two conditions, two potentials of the same entity. Baudelaire, Who can be considered as the first of the real moderns in many ways, saw and experienced this intimate polarity or identity of opposites in human nature and consciousness. What is Evil, Who is the Evil One:
Une Ide, uneForme, Un tre
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Ifso long the poet was more or less a passive, a half-conscious or unconscious intermediary between the higher and the lower lights and delights, his role in the future will be better fulfilled when he becomes fully aware of it and consciously moulds and directs his creative energies. The poet is and has to be the harbinger and minstrel of unheard-of melodies: he is the fashioner of the creative word that brings down and embodies the deepest aspirations and experiences of the human consciousness. The poet is a missionary: he is missioned by Divine Beauty to radiate upon earth something of her charm and wizardry. The fullness of his role he can only play up when he is fully conscious for it is under that condition that all obstructing and obscuring elements lying across the path of inspiration can be completely and Wholly eradicated: the instrument purified and tempered and transmuted can hold and express golden truths and beauties and puissances that otherwise escape the too human mould.
"The Last Voyage" by Charles Williams-A Little Book of Modern Verse, (Faber and Faber).
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Ourself and a high stranger Whom we feel,
It is and acts unseen as if it were not;
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A Being is in her Whom she hopes to know,
A Word speaks to her heart she cannot hear,
A Fate compels Whose form she cannot see.
In her unconscious orbit through the Void
--
But Who shall pierce into the cryptic gulf
And learn what deep necessity of the soul
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And seldom in the few Who answer give
The mighty process of the cosmic Will
--
Of one Who steps unseen into his house.
A Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey,
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Moves here in a half-light that seems the Whole:
An interregnum in Reality
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One Who has shaped this world is ever its lord:
Our errors are his steps upon the way;
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There are Two Who are One and play in many worlds;
In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met
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Which but for the dream would not be Wholly true,
A phenomenon stands out significant
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A part is seen, we take it for the Whole.
Thus have they made their play with us for roles:
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His bliss in her to him is his Whole world:
He grows through her in all his being's powers;
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A glance can make his Whole day wonderful,
A word from her lips with happiness wings the hours.
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This Whole wide world is only he and she.
13.28
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The Two Who are one are the secret of all power,
The Two Who are one are the might and right in things.
His soul, silent, supports the world and her,
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He Whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts,
Prescient now dwells in our subliminal depths,
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He lives in all, Who lived in his Vast alone;
Space is himself and Time is only he.
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One Who is in us as our secret self,
Our mask of imperfection has assumed,
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His own self's truth he seeks Who is the Truth;
He is the Player Who became the play,
He is the Thinker Who became the thought;
He is the many Who was the silent One.
In the symbol figures of the cosmic Force
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A limit, a farness never Wholly reached,
An unattained perfection calls to him
01.05 - Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In an age when Reason was considered as the highest light given to man, Tagore pointed to the Vision of the mystics as always the still greater light; when man was elated with undreamt-of worldly success, puffed up with incomparable material possessions and powers, Tagore's voice rang clear and emphatic in tune with the cry of the ancients: "What shall I do with all this mass of things, if I am not made immortal by that?" When men, in their individual as well as collective egoism, were scrambling for earthly gains and hoards, he held before them vaster and cleaner horizons, higher and deeper ways of being and living, maintained the sacred sense of human solidarity, the living consciousness of the Divine, one and indivisible. When the Gospel of Power had all but hypnotised men's minds, and Superman or God-man came to be equated with the Titan, Tagore saw through the falsehood and placed in front and above all the old-world eternal verities of love and self-giving, harmony and mutuality, sweetness and light. When pessimism, cynicism, agnosticism struck the major chord of human temperament, and grief and frustration and death and decay were taken as a matter of course to be the inevitable order of earthlylifebhasmantam idam shariramhe continued to sing the song of the Rishis that Ananda and Immortality are the breath of things, the birth right of human beings. When Modernism declared with a certitude never tobe contested that Matter is Brahman, Tagore said with the voice of one Who knows that Spirit is Brahman.
Tagore is in direct line with those bards Who have sung of the Spirit, Who always soared high above the falsehoods and uglinesses of a merely mundane life and lived in the undecaying delights and beauties of a diviner consciousness. Spiritual reality was the central theme of his poetic creation: only and naturally he viewed it in a special way and endowed it with a special grace. We know of another God-intoxicated man, the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, Who saw things sub specie aeternitatis, under the figure or mode of eternity. Well, Tagore can be said to see things, in their essential spiritual reality, under the figure or mode of beauty. Keats indeed spoke of truth being beauty and beauty truth. But there is a great difference in the outlook and inner experience. A worshipper of beauty, unless he rises to the Upanishadic norm, is prone to become sensuous and pagan. Keats was that, Kalidasa was that, even Shelley was not far different. The spiritual vein in all these poets remains secondary. In the old Indian master, it is part of his intellectual equipment, no doubt, but nothing much more than that. In the other two it comes in as strange flashes from an unknown country, as a sort of irruption or on the peak of the poetic afflatus or enthousiasmos.
The world being nothing but Spirit made visible is, according to Tagore, fundamentally a thing of beauty. The scars and spots that are on the surface have to be removed and mankind has to repossess and clo the itself with that mantle of beauty. The world is beautiful, because it is the image of the Beautiful, because it harbours, expresses and embodies the Divine Who is Beauty supreme. Now by a strange alchemy, a wonderful effect of polarisation, the very spiritual element in Tagore has made him almost a pagan and even a profane. For what are these glories of Nature and the still more exquisite glories that the human body has captured? They are but vibrations and modulations of beauty the delightful names and forms of the supreme Lover and Beloved.
Socrates is said to have brought down Philosophy from Heaven to live among men upon earth. A similar exploit can be ascribed to Tagore. The Spirit, the bare transcendental Reality contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer to our planet, close to human consciousness in Tagore's vision, being clothed in earth and flesh and blood, made vivid with the colours and contours of the physical existence. The Spirit, yes and by all means, but not necessarily asceticism and monasticism. So Tagore boldly declared in those famous lines of his:
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The spirit of the age demands this new gospel. Mankind needs and awaits a fresh revelation. The world and life are not an illusion or a lesser reality: they are, if taken rightly, as real as the pure Spirit itself. Indeed, Spirit and Flesh, Consciousness and Matter are not antinomies; to consider them as such is itself an illusion. In fact, they are only two poles or modes or aspects of the same reality. To separate or divide them is a one-sided concentration or abstraction on the part of the human mind. The fulfilment of the Spirit is in its expression through Matter; human life too reaches its highest term, its summum bonum, in embodying the spiritual consciousness here on earth and not dissolving itself in the Transcendence. That is the new Dispensation which answers to the deepest aspiration in man and towards which he has been travelling through the ages in the course of the evolution of his consciousness. Many, however, are the prophets and sages Who have set this ideal before humanity and more and more insistently and clearly as we come nearer to the age we live in. But none or very few have expressed it with such beauty and charm and compelling persuasion. It would be carping criticism to point out-as some, purists one may call them, have done-that in poetising and aesthetising the spiritual truth and reality, in trying to make it human and terrestrial, he has diminished and diluted the original substance, in endeavouring to render the diamond iridescent, he has turned it into a baser alloy. Tagore's is a poetic soul, it must be admitted; and it is not necessary that one should find in his ideas and experiences and utterances the cent per cent accuracy and inevitability of a Yogic consciousness. Still his major perceptions, those that count, stand and are borne out by the highest spiritual realisation.
Tagore is no inventor or innovator when he posits Spirit as Beauty, the spiritual consciousness as the ardent rhythm of ecstasy. This experience is the very core of Vaishnavism and for which Tagore is sometimes called a Neo-Vaishnava. The Vaishnava sees the world pulsating in glamorous beauty as the Lila (Play) of the Lord, and the Lord, God himself, is nothing but Love and Beauty. Still Tagore is not all Vaishnava or merely a Vaishnava; he is in addition a modern (the carping voice will say, there comes the dilution and adulteration)in the sense that problems exist for himsocial, political, economic, national, humanitarianwhich have to be faced and solved: these are not merely mundane, but woven into the texture of the fundamental problem of human destiny, of Soul and Spirit and God. A Vaishnava was, in spite of his acceptance of the world, an introvert, to use a modern psychological phrase, not necessarily in the pejorative sense, but in the neutral scientific sense. He looks upon the universe' and human life as the play of the Lord, as an actuality and not mere illusion indeed; but he does not participate or even take interest in the dynamic working out of the world process, he does not care to know, has no need of knowing that there is a terrestrial purpose and a diviner fulfilment of the mortal life upon earth. The Vaishnava dwells more or less absorbed in the Vaikuntha of his inner consciousness; the outer world, although real, is only a symbolic shadowplay to which he can but be a witness-real, is only a nothing more.
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Not the acceptance of the world as it is, not even a joyous acceptance, viewing it as an inexplicable and mysterious and magic play of, God, but the asp ration and endeavour to change it, mould it in the pattern of its inner divine realities for there are such realities which seek expression and embodiment in earthly life that is the great mission and labour of humanity and that is all the meaning of man's existence here below. And Tagore is one of the great prophets and labourers Who had the vision of the shape of things to come and worked for it. Only it must be noted, as I have already said, that unlike mere moral reformists or scientific planners, Tagore grounded himself upon the eternal ancient truths that "age cannot wither nor custom stale"the divine truths of the Spirit.
Tagore was a poet; this poetic power of his he put in the service of the great cause for the divine uplift of humanity. Naturally, it goes without saying, his poetry did not preach or propagandize the truths for which he stoodhe had a fine and powerful weapon in his prose to do the work, even then in a poetic way but to sing them. And he sang them not in their philosophical bareness, like a Lucretius, or in their sheer transcendental austerity like some of the Upanishadic Rishis, but in and through human values and earthly norms. The especial aroma of Tagore's poetry lies exactly here, as he himself says, in the note of unboundedness in things bounded that it describes. A mundane, profane sensuousness, Kalidasian in richness and sweetness, is matched or counterpointed by a simple haunting note imbedded or trailing somewhere behind, a lyric cry persevering into eternity, the nostalgic cry of the still small voice.2
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Nietzsche as the apostle of force is a name now familiar to all the world. The hero, the warrior Who never tamely accepts suffering and submission and defeat under any condition but fights always and fights to conquersuch is the ideal man, according to Nietzsche,the champion of strength, of greatness, of mightiness. The dominating personality infused with the supreme "will to power"he is Ubermensch, the Superman. Sentiment does not move the mountains, emotion diffuses itself only in vague aspiration. The motive power, the creative fiat does not dwell in the heart but somewhere higher. The way of the Cross, the path of love and charity and pity does not lead to the kingdom of Heaven. The world has tried it for the last twenty centuries of its Christian civilisation and the result is that we are still living in a luxuriant abundance of misery and sordidness and littleness. This is how Nietzsche thinks and feels. He finds no virtue in the old rgimes and he revolts from them. He wants a speedy and radical remedy and teaches that by violence only the Kingdom of Heaven can be seized. For, to Nietzsche the world is only a clash of forces and the Superman therefore is one Who is the embodiment of the greatest force. Nietzsche does not care for the good, it is the great that moves him. The good, the moral is of man, conventional and has only a fictitious value. The great, the non-moral is, on the other hand, divine. That only has a value of its own. The good is nothing but a sort of makeshift arrangement which man makes for himself in order to live commodiously and which changes according to his temperament. But the great is one with the Supreme Wisdom and is absolute and imperative. The good cannot create the great; it is the great that makes for the good. This is what he really means when he says, "They say that a good cause sanctifies war but I tell thee it is a good war that sanctifies all cause." For the goodness of your cause you judge by your personal predilections, by your false conventionalities, by a standard that you set up in your ignoranceBut a good war, the output of strength in any cause is in itself a cause of salvation. For thereby you are the champion of that ultimate verity which conduces to the ultimate good. Do not shrink, he would say, to be even like the cyclone and the avalanche, destructive, indeed, but grand and puissant and therefore truer emblems of the BeyondJenseitsthan the weak, the little, the pitiful that do not dare to destroy and by that very fact cannot hope to create.
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently Hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Are pieced into a tessellated Whole.
There is no perfect answer to our hopes;
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Amid Whose falls wonders like flowers rise,
Are surer than reason, defter than device
--
Thence to the initiate Who observes her laws
She brings the light of her mysterious realms:
--
This overt universe Whose figures hide
The secrets merged in superconscient light,
01.06 - On Communism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Communism is the synthesis of collectivism and individualism. The past ages of society were characterised more or less by a severe collectivism. In ancient Greece, more so in Sparta and in Rome, the individual had, properly speaking, no separate existence of his own; he was merged in the State or Nation. The individual was considered only as a limb of the collective being, had to live and labour for the common weal. The value attached to each person was strictly in reference to the output that the group to which he belonged received from him. Apart from this service for the general unit the body politicany personal endeavour and achievement, if not absolutely discouraged and repressed, was given a very secondary place of merit. The summum bonum of the individual was to sacrifice at the altar of the res publica, the bonum publicum. In India, the position and function of the State or Nation was taken up by the society. Here too social institutions were so constituted and men were so bred and brought up that individuality had neither the occasion nor the incentive to express itself, it was a thing that remained, in the Kalidasian phrase, an object for the ear onlysrutau sthita. Those Who sought at all an individual aim and purpose, as perhaps the Sannyasins, were put outside the gate of law and society. Within the society, in actual life and action, it was a sin and a crime or at least a gross imperfection to have any self-regarding motive or impulse; personal preference was the last thing to be considered, virtue consisted precisely in sacrificing one's own taste and inclination for the sake of that which the society exacts and sanctions.
Against this tyranny of the group, this absolute rule of the collective will, the human mind rose in revolt and the result was Individualism. For whatever may be the truth and necessity of the Collective, the Individual is no less true and necessary. The individual has his own law and urge of being and his own secret godhead. The collective godhead derides the individual godhead at its peril. The first movement of the reaction, however, was a run to the other extremity; a stern collectivism gave birth to an intransigent individualism. The individual is sacred and inviolable, cost what it may. It does not matter what sort of individuality one seeks, it is enough if the thing is there. So the doctrine of individualism has come to set a premium on egoism and on forces that are disruptive of all social bonds. Each and every individual has the inherent right, which is also a duty, to follow his own impetus and impulse. Society is nothing but the battle ground for competing individualities the strongest survive and the weakest go to the wall. Association and co-operation are instruments that the individual may use and utilise for his own growth and development but in the main they act as deterrents rather than as aids to the expression and expansion of his characteristic being. In reality, however, if we probe sufficiently deep into the matter we find that there is no such thing as corporate life and activity; what appears as such is only a camouflage for rigorous competition; at the best, there maybe only an offensive and defensive alliancehumanity fights against nature, and within humanity itself group fights against group and in the last analysis, within the group, the individual fights against the individual. This is the ultimate Law-the Dharma of creation.
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Now, a spiritual communism embraces individualism and collectivism, fuses them in a higher truth, establishes them in an intimate and absolute harmony. The individual is the centre, the group is the circumference and the two form one Whore circle. The individual by fulfilling the truth of his real individuality fulfils also the truth of a commonality. There are no different laws for the two. The individuals do not stand apart from and against one another, the dharma of one does not clash with the dharma of the other. The ripples in the bosom of the sea, however distinct and discrete in appearance, form but a single mass, all follow the same law of hydrodynamics that the mother sea incarnates. Stars and planets and nebulae, each separate heavenly body has its characteristic form and nature and function and yet all fulfil the same law of gravitation and beat the measure of the silent symphony of spaces. Individualities are the freedoms of the collective being and collectivity the concentration of individual beings. The same soul looking inward appears as the individual being and looking outward appears as the collective being.
Communism takes man not as ego or the vital creature; it turns him upside downurdhomulo' vaksakhah and establishes him upon his soul, his inner godhead. Thus established the individual soul finds and fulfils the divine law that by increasing itself it increases others and by increasing others it increases itself and thus by increasing one another they attain the supreme good. Unless man goes beyond himself and reaches this self, this godhead above, he will not find any real poise, will always swing between individualism and collectivism, he will remain always boundbound either in his freedom or in his bondage.
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The individual Who leads a severely individual life from the very beginning, Whose outlook of the world has been fashioned by that conception, can hardly, if at all, enter at the end the communal life. He must perforce be either a vagabond or a recluse: But the recluse is not an integral man, nor the vagabond an ideal personality. The individual need not be too chaste and shy to associate with others and to give and take as freely and fully as he can. Individuality is not necessarily curtailed or mutilated in this process, but there is this other greater possibility of its getting enlarged and enhanced. Rather it is when you shut yourself up in your own self, that you stick to only one line of your personality, to a single phase of your self and thus limit and diminish yourself; the breadth and height and depth of your self, the cubic completeness of your personality you can attain only through a multiple and variegated stress by which you come in contact with the world and things.
So first the individual and then the commune is not the natural nor the ideal principle. On the other hand, first the commune and then the individual would appear to be an equally defective principle. For first a commune means an organisation, its laws and rules and regulations, its injunctions and prohibitions; all which signifies or comes to signify that every individual is not free to enter its fold and that Whoever enters must know how to dovetail himself therein and thus crush down the very life-power Whose enhancement and efflorescence is sought. First a commune means necessarily a creed, a dogma, a set form of being and living indelibly marked out from beforehand. The individual has there no choice of finding and developing the particular creed or dogma or mode of being and living, from out of his own self, along his particular line of natural growth; all that is imposed upon him and he has to accept and make it his own by trial and effort and self-torture. Even if the commune be a contractual association, the members having joined together in a common cause to a common end, by voluntarily sacrificing a portion of their personal choice and freedom, even then it is not the ideal thing; the collective soul will be diminished in exact proportion as each individual soul has had to be diminished, be that voluntary or otherwise. That commune is plenary and entire which ensures plenitude and entirety to each of its individuals.
Now how to escape the dilemma? Only if we take the commune and the individual togetheren bloc, as has already been suggested. This means that the commune should be at the beginning a subtle and supple thing, without form and even without name, it should be no more than the circumambient aura the sukshma deha that plays around a group of individuals Who meet and unite and move together by a secret affinity, along a common path towards a common goal. As each individual develops and defines himself, the commune also takes a more and more concrete shape; and when at the last stage the individual rises to the full height of his godhead, takes possession of his integral divinity, the commune also establishes its solid empire, vivid and vibrant in form and name.
***
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A personal reminiscence. A young man in prison, accused of conspiracy and waging war against the British Empire. If convicted he might have to suffer the extreme penalty, at least, transportation to the Andamans. The case is dragging on for long months. And the young man is in a solitary cell. He cannot always keep up his spirits high. Moments of sadness and gloom and despair come and almost overwhelm him. Who was there to console and cheer him up? Vivekananda. Vivekananda's speeches, From Colombo to Almora, came, as a godsend, into the hands of the young man. Invariably, when the period of despondency came he used to open the book, read a few pages, read them over again, and the cloud was there no longer. Instead there was hope and courage and faith and future and light and air.
Such is Vivekananda, the embodiment of Fearlessnessabh, the Upanishadic word, the mantra, he was so fond of. The life and vision of Vivekananda can be indeed summed up in the mighty phrase of the Upanishads, nyam tm balahnena labhya. 'This soul no weakling can attain.' Strength! More strength! Strength evermore! One remembers the motto of Danton, the famous leader in the French Revolution:De l'audance, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!
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He Whose greatness these snowy ranges declare
or,
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The consciousness that breathed out these mighty words, these heavenly sounds was in itself mighty and heavenly and it is that that touches you, penetrates you, vibrates in you a kindred chord, "awakening in you someone dead" till thenmrtam kcana bodhayant. More than the matter, the thing that was said, was the personality, the being Who embodied the truth expressed, the living consciousness behind the words and the speech that set fire to your soul. Indeed it was the soul that Vivekananda could awaken and stir in you. Any orator, any speaker with some kind of belief, even if it is for the moment, in what he says, by the sheer force of assertion, can convince your mind and draw your acquiescence and adhesion. A leader of men, self-confident and bold and fiery, can carry you off your feet and make you do brave things. But that is a lower degree of character and nature, ephemeral and superficial, that is touched in you thereby. The spiritual leader, the Guide, goes straight to the spirit in youit is the call of the deep unto the deep. That was what Vivekananda meant when he said that Brahman is asleep in you, awaken it, you are the Brahman, awaken it, you are free and almighty. It is the spirit consciousness Sachchidananda that is the real man in you and that is supremely mighty and invincible and free absolutely. The courage and fearlessness that Vivekananda gave you was the natural attribute of the lordship of your spiritual reality. Vivekananda spoke and roused the Atman in man.
Vivekananda spoke to the Atman in man, he spoke to the Atman of the world, and he spoke specially to the Atman of India. India had a large place in Vivekananda's consciousness: for the future of humanity and the world is wedded to India's future. India has a great mission, it has a spiritual, rather the spiritual work to do. Here is India's work as Vivekananda conceived it in a nutshell:
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"The dwelling-place of the Jivatman, this body, is a veritable means of work, and he Who converts this into an infernal den is guilty, and he Who neglects it is also to blame."
"No work is petty ... He Who can properly prepare a chilam (pipe of tobacco) can also properly meditate."
These are luminous life-giving mantras and the world and humanity of today, sore distressed and utterly confounded, have great need of them to live them by and be saved.
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"The zeal for the Lord hath eaten me up." Such has indeed been the case with Pascal, almost literally. The fire that burned in him was too ardent and vehement for the vehicle, the material instrument, which was very soon used up and reduced to ashes. At twenty-four he was already a broken man, being struck with paralysis and neuras thenia; he died at the comparatively early age of 39, emulating, as it were, the life career of his Lord the Christ Who died at 33. The Fire martyrised the body, but kindled and brought forth experiences and realisations that save and truths that abide. It was the Divine Fire Whose vision and experience he had on the famous night of 23 November 1654 which brought about his final and definitive conversion. It was the same fire that had blazed up in his brain, while yet a boy, and made him a precocious genius, a marvel of intellectual power in the exact sciences. At 12 this prodigy discovered by himself the 32nd proposition of Euclid, Book I. At sixteen he wrote a treatise on conic sections. At nineteen he invented a calculating machine which, without the help of any mathematical rule or process, gave absolutely accurate results. At twenty-three he published his experiments with vacuum. At twenty-five he conducted the well-known experiment from the tower of St. Jacques, proving the existence of atmospheric pressure. His studies in infinitesimal calculus were remarkably creative and original. And it might be said he was a pioneer in quite a new branch of mathematics, viz., the mathematical theory of probability. We shall see presently how his preoccupation with the mathematics of chance and probability coloured and reinforced his metaphysics and theology.
But the pressure upon his dynamic and heated brain the fiery zeal in his mindwas already proving too much and he was advised medically to take complete rest. Thereupon followed what was known as Pascal's mundane lifea period of distraction and dissipation; but this did not last long nor was it of a serious nature. The inner fire could brook no delay, it was eager and impatient to englobe other fields and domains. Indeed, it turned to its own field the heart. Pascal became initiated into the mystery of Faith and Grace. Still he had to pass through a terrible period of dejection and despair: the life of the world had given him no rest or relaxation, it served only to fill his cup of misery to the brim. But the hour of final relief was not long postponed: the Grace came to him, even as it came to Moses or St. Paul as a sudden flare of fire which burnt up the Dark Night and opened out the portals of Morning Glory.
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Pascal's faith had not the calm, tranquil, serene, luminous and happy self-possession of an Indian Rishi. It was ardent and impatient, fiery and vehement. It had to be so perhaps, since it was to stand against his steely brain (and a gloomy vital or life force) as a counterpoise, even as an antidote. This tension and schism brought about, at least contri buted to his neuras thenia and physical infirmity. But whatever the effect upon his inner consciousness and spiritual achievement, his power of expression, his literary style acquired by that a special quality which is his great gift to the French language. If one speaks of Pascal, one has to speak of his language also; for he was one of the great masters Who created the French prose. His prose was a wonderful blend of clarity, precision, serried logic and warmth, colour, life, movement, plasticity.
A translation cannot give any idea of the Pascalian style; but an inner echo of the same can perhaps be caught from the thought movement of these characteristic sayings of his with which we conclude:
01.07 - The Bases of Social Reconstruction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is this persuasion which, has led many spiritual souls, siddhas, to declare that theirs is not the kingdom upon this earth, but that the kingdom of Heaven is within. And it is why great lovers of humanity have sought not to eradicate but only to mitigate, as far as possible, the ills of life. Earth and life, it is said, contain in their last analysis certain ugly and loathsome realities which are an inevitable and inexorable part of their substance and to eliminate one means to annihilate the other. What can be done is to throw a veil over the nether regions in human nature, to put a ban on their urges and velleities and to create opportunities to make social arrangements so that the higher impulses only find free play while the lower impulses, for want of scope and indulgence, may fall down to a harmless level. This is what the Reformists hope and want and no more. Life is based upon animality, the soul is encased in an earth-sheathman needs must procreate, man needs must seek food. But what human effort can achieve is to set up barriers and limitations and form channels and openings, which will restrain these impulses, allow them a necessary modicum of play and which for the greater part will serve to encourage and enhance the nobler urges in man. Of course, there will remain always the possibility of the Whole scaffolding coming down with a crash and the aboriginal in man running riot in his nudity. But we have to accept the chance and make the best of what materials we have in hand.
No doubt this is a most dismal kind of pessimism. But it is the logical conclusion of all optimism that bases itself upon a particular view of human nature. If we question that pessimism, we have to question the very grounds of our optimism also. As a matter of fact, all our idealism has been so long infructuous and will be so in the future, if we do not shift our foundation and start from a different IntuitionWeltanschauung.
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The method of unconscious or subconscious nature is fundamentally that of repression. Apart from Defence Reaction which is a thing of pure coercion, even in Substitution and Sublimation there always remains in the background a large amount of repressed complexes in all their primitive strength. The system is never entirely purified but remains secretly pregnant with those urges; a part only is deflected and camouflaged, the surface only assumes a transformed appearance. And there is always the danger of the superstructure coming down helplessly by a sudden upheaval of the nether forces. The Whole system feels, although not in a conscious manner, the tension of the repression and suffers from something that is unhealthy and ill-balanced. Dante's spiritualised passion is a supreme instance of control by Sublimation, but the Divina Comedia hardly bears the impress of a serene and tranquil soul, sovereignly above the turmoils of the tragedy of life and absolutely at peace with itself.
In conscious control, the mind is for the first time aware of the presence of the repressed impulses, it seeks to release them from the pressure to which they are habitually and normally subjected. It knows and recognises them, however ugly and revolting they might appear to be when they present themselves in their natural nakedness. Then it becomes easy for the conscious determination to eliminate or regulate or transform them and thus to establish a healthy harmony in the human vehicle. The very recognition itself, as implied in conscious control, means purification.
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This is the real meaning and sense of the moral struggle in man, the continuous endeavour towards a transvaluation of the primary and aboriginal instincts and impulses. Looked at from one end, from below up the ascending line, man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a dissimulation and sublimation of the animal impulsions. But this is becauseas we see, if we look from the other end, from above down the descending lineman is not all instinct, he is not a mere blind instrument in the hands of Nature forces. He has in him another source, an opposite pole of being from which other impulsions flow and continually modify the structure of the lower levels. If the animal is the foundation of his nature, the divine is its summit. If the bodily demands form his manifest reality, the demands of the spirit enshrine his higher reality. And if as regards the former he is a slave, as regards the latter he is the Master. It is by the interaction of these double forces that his Whole nature has been and is being fashioned. Man does not and cannot give carte blanche to his vital, inclinations, since there is a pressure upon them of higher forces coming down from his mental and spiritual levels. It is these latter which have deviated him from the direct line of the pure animal life.
Thus then we may distinguish three types of control on three levels. First, the natural control, secondly the conscious, i.e. to say the mental the ethical and religious control, and thirdly the spiritual or divine control. Now the spirit is the ultimate truth and reality, behind the forces that act in the mind and in the body, so that the natural control and the ethical control are mere attempts to establish and realise the spiritual control. The animal impulses feel the hidden stress of the divine urges that are their real essence and thus there rises first an unconscious conflict in the natural life and then a conscious conflict in the higher ethical life. But when both of these are transcended and the conflict is carried on to a still higher level, then do we find their real significance and arrive at the consummation to which they move. Yoga is the ultimate transvaluation of physical (and of moral) values, it is the trans-substantiation of life-power into its spiritual substance.
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Close the senses. Turn within. And then go forward, that is to say, more and more inward. In that direction lies your itinerary, the journey of your consciousness. The sense-ridden secular man, Who goes by his physical eye, has marked in his own way the steps of his forward march and progress. His knowledge and his power grew as he proceeded in his survey from larger masses of physical objects to their component molecules and from molecules to their component atoms and from atoms once more into electrons and protons or energy-points pure and simple, or otherwise as, in another direction, he extended his gaze from earth to the solar system, from the solar system to other starry systems, to far-off galaxies and I from galaxies to spaces beyond. The record of this double-track march to infinityas perceived or conceived by the physical sensesis marvellous, no doubt. The mystic offers the spectacle of a still more marvellous march to another kind of infinity.
Here is the Augustinian mantra taken as the motto of The Scale of Perfection: We ascend the ascending grades in our heart and we sing the song of ascension1. The journey's end is heavenly Jerusalem, the House of the Lord. The steps of this inner ascension are easily visible, not surely to the outer eye of the sense-burdened man, but to the "ghostly seeing" of the aspirant which is hazy in the beginning but slowly clears as he advances. The first step is the withdrawal from the outer senses and looking and seeing within. "Turn home again in thyself, and hold thee within and beg no more without." The immediate result is a darkness and a restless darknessit is a painful night. The outer objects of attraction and interest have been discarded, but the inner attachments and passions surge there still. If, however, one continues and persists, refuses to be drawn out, the turmoil settles down and the darkness begins to thin and wear away. One must not lose heart, one must have patience and perseverance. So when the outward world is no more-there and its call also no longer awakes any echo in us, then comes the stage of "restful darkness" or "light-some darkness". But it is still the dark Night of the soul. The outer light is gone and the inner light is not yet visible: the night, the desert, the great Nought, stretches between these two lights. But the true seeker goes through and comes out of the tunnel. And there is happiness at the end. "The seeking is travaillous, but the finding is blissful." When one steps out of the Night, enters into the deepest layer of the being, one stands face to face to one's soul, the very image of God, the perfect God-man, the Christ within. That is the third degree of our inner ascension, the entry into the deepest, purest and happiest statein which one becomes what he truly is; one finds the Christ there and dwells in love and union with him. But there is still a further step to take, and that is real ascension. For till now it has been a going within, from the outward to the inner and the inmost; now one has to go upward, transcend. Within the body, in life, however deep you may go, even if you find your soul and your union with Jesus Whose tabernacle is your soul, still there is bound to remain a shadow of the sinful prison-house; the perfect bliss and purity without any earthly taint, the completeness and the crowning of the purgation and transfiguration can come only when you go beyond, leaving altogether the earthly form and worldly vesture and soar into Heaven itself and be in the company of the Trinity. "Into myself, and after... above myself by overpassing only into Him." At the same time it is pointed out, this mediaeval mystic has the common sense to see that the going in and going above of which one speaks must not be understood in a literal way, it is a figure of speech. The movement of the mystic is psychological"ghostly", it is saidnot physical or carnal.
This spiritual march or progress can also be described as a growing into the likeness of the Lord. His true self, his own image is implanted within us; he is there in the profoundest depth of our being as Jesus, our beloved and our soul rests in him in utmost bliss. We are aware neither of Jesus nor of his spouse, our soul, because of the obsession of the flesh, the turmoil raised by the senses, the blindness of pride and egoism. All that constitutes the first or old Adam, the image of Nought, the body of death which means at bottom the "false misruled love in to thyself." This self-love is the mother of sin, is sin itself. What it has to be replaced by is charity that is the true meaning of Christian charity, forgetfulness of self. "What is sin but a wanting and a forbearing of God." And the Whole task, the discipline consists in "the shaping of Christ in you, the casting of sin through Christ." Who then is Christ, what is he? This knowledge you get as you advance from your sense-bound perception towards the inner and inmost seeing. As your outer nature gets purified, you approach gradually your soul, the scales fall off from your eyes too and you have the knowledge and "ghostly vision." Here too there are three degrees; first, you start with faith the senses can do nothing better than have faith; next, you rise to imagination which gives a sort of indirect touch or inkling of the truth; finally, you have the "understanding", the direct vision. "If he first trow it, he shall afterwards through grace feel it, and finally understand it."
It is never possible for man, weak and bound as he is, to reject the thraldom of his flesh, he can never purify himself Wholly by his own unaided strength. God in his infinite mercy sent his own son, an emanation created out of his substancehis embodied loveas a human being to suffer along with men and take upon himself the burden of their sins. God the Son lived upon earth as man and died as man. Sin therefore has no longer its final or definitive hold upon mankind. Man has been made potentially free, pure and worthy of salvation. This is the mystery of Christ, of God the Son. But there is a further mystery. Christ not only lived for all men for all time, whether they know him, recognise him or not; but he still lives, he still chooses his beloved and his beloved chooses him, there is a conscious acceptance on either side. This is the function of the Holy Ghost, the redeeming power of Love active in him Who accepts it and Who is accepted by it, the dynamic Christ-Consciousness in the true Christian.
Indeed, the kernel of the mystic discipline and its Whole bearingconsists in one and only one principle: to love Jhesu. All roads lead to Rome: all preparations, all trials lead to one realisation, love of God, God as a living person close to us, our friend and lover and master. The Christian mystic speaks almost in the terms of the Gita: Rise above your senses, give up your ego-hood, be meek and humble, it is Jesus within you, Who embraces your soul: it is he Who does everything for you and in you, give yourself up Wholly into his hands. He will deliver you.
The characteristic then of the path is a one-pointed concentration. Great stress is laid upon "oneliness", "onedness":that is to say, a perfect and complete withdrawal from the outside and the world; an unmixed solitude is required for the true experience and realisation to come. "A full forsaking in will of the soul for the love of Him, and a living of the heart to Him. This asks He, for this gave He." The rigorous exclusion, the uncompromising asceticism, the voluntary self-torture, the cruel dark night and the arid desert are necessary conditions that lead to the "onlyness of soul", what another prophet (Isaiah, XXIV, 16) describes as "My privity to me". In that secreted solitude, the "onlistead"the graphic language of the author calls itis found "that dignity and that ghostly fairness which a soul had by kind and shall have by grace." The utter beauty of the soul and its absolute love for her deity within her (which has the fair name of Jhesu), the exclusive concentration of the Whole of the being upon one point, the divine core, the manifest Grace of God, justifies the annihilation of the world and life's manifold existence. Indeed, the image of the Beloved is always within, from the beginning to the end. It is that that keeps one up in the terrible struggle with one's nature and the world. The image depends upon the consciousness which we have at the moment, that is to say, upon the stage or the degree we have ascended to. At the outset, when we can only look through the senses, when the flesh is our master, we give the image a crude form and character; but even that helps. Gradually, as we rise, with the clearing of our nature, the image too slowly regains its original and true shape. Finally, in the inmost soul we find Jesus as he truly is: "an unchangeable being, a sovereign might, a sovereign soothfastness, sovereign goodness, a blessed life and endless bliss." Does not the Gita too say: "As one approaches Me, so do I appear to him."Ye yath mm prapadyante.
Indeed, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love, the Christian and the Vaishnava, for example. Indian spirituality, whatever its outer form or credal formulation, has always a background of utter unity. This unity, again, is threefold or triune and is expressed in those great Upanishadic phrases,mahvkyas,(1) the transcendental unity: the One alone exists, there is nothing else than theOneekamevdvityam; (2) the cosmic unity: all existence is one, whatever exists is that One, thereare no separate existences:sarvam khalvidam brahma neha nnsti kincaa; (3) That One is I, you too are that One:so' ham, tattvamasi; this may be called the individual unity. As I have said, all spiritual experiences in India, of whatever school or line, take for granted or are fundamentally based upon this sense of absolute unity or identity. Schools of dualism or pluralism, Who do not apparently admit in their tenets this extreme monism, are still permeated in many ways with that sense and in some form or other take cognizance of the truth of it. The Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Father in Heaven are one', but this is not identity, but union; besides, the human soul is not admitted into this identity, nor the world soul. The world, we have seen, according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned, negatived, as we go inward and upward towards our spiritual status reflecting the divine image in the divine company. It is a complete rejection, a cutting off and casting away of world and life. One extreme Vedantic path seems to follow a similar line, but there it is not really rejection, but a resolution, not the rejection of what is totally foreign and extraneous, but a resolution of the external into its inner and inmost substance, of the effect into its original cause. Brahman is in the world, Brahman is the world: the world has unrolled itself out of the Brahmansi, pravttiit has to be rolled back into its, cause and substance if it is to regain its pure nature (that is the process of nivitti). Likewise, the individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the Whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically, as an associate or at the most as an image of God. The love for one's neighbour, charity, which the Christian discipline enjoins is one's love for one's kind, because of affinity of nature and quality: it does not dissolve the two into an integral unity and absolute identity, where we love because we are one, because we are the One. The highest culmination of love, the very basis of love, according to the Indian conception, is a transcendence of love, love trans-muted into Bliss. The Upanishad says, where one has become the utter unity, Who loves Whom? To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book we are considering. The true Christian, it is said, loves the sinner too, he is permitted to dislike sin, for he has to reject it, but he must separate from sin the sinner and love him. Why? Because the sinner too can change and become his brother in spirit, one loves the sinner because there is the possibility of his changing and becoming a true Christian. It is why the orthodox Christian, even such an enlightened and holy person as this mediaeval Canon, considers the non-Christian, the non-baptised as impure and potentially and fundamentally sinners. That is also why the Church, the physical organisation, is worshipped as Christ's very body and outside the Church lies the pagan world which has neither religion nor true spirituality nor salvation. Of course, all this may be symbolic and it is symbolic in a sense. If Christianity is taken to mean true spirituality, and the Church is equated with the collective embodiment of that spirituality, all that is claimed on their behalf stands justified. But that is an ideal, a hypothetical standpoint and can hardly be borne out by facts. However, to come back to our subject, let us ow take the second example. Of Christ himself, it is said, he not only did not dislike or had any aversion for Judas, but that he positively loved the traitor with a true and sincere love. He knew that the man would betray him and even when he was betraying and had betrayed, the Son of Man continued to love him. It was no make-believe or sham or pretence. It was genuine, as genuine as anything can be. Now, why did he love his enemy? Because, it is said, the enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed: he has been allowed to test the faith of the faithful, he too has his utility, he too is God's servant. And Who knows even a Judas would not change in the end? Many Who come to scoff do remain to pray. But it can be asked, 'Does God love Satan too in the same way?' The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different. There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently. Whether a thing is considered good or evil or neutral, essentially and truly, it is that One and nothing else. God's own self is everywhere and the sage makes no difference between the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every objectsarvabhtsthitam yo mm bhajati ekatvamsthitah"he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."2
This will elucidate another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness of that divine feeling. This Christian's, however, is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" with her lord and master; the soul is shred here of all earthly vesture and goes innocent and naked into the embrace of her Beloved. The Vaishnava feeling is richer and seems to possess more amplitude; it is more concrete and less ethereal. The Vaishnava in his passionate yearning seeks to carry as it were the Whole world with him to his Lord: for he sees and feels Him not only in the inmost chamber of his soul, but meets Him also in and I through his senses and in and through the world and its objects around. In psychological terms one can say that the Christian realisation, at its very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's spiritual evolution upon earth. The Divine Grace descends from the highest into the deepest and from the deepest to the outer ranges of human nature, so that the Whole of it may be illumined and transformed and one day man can embody in his earthly life the integral manifestation of God, the perfect Epiphany. Each religion, each line of spiritual discipline takes up one limb of manone level or mode of his being and consciousness purifies it and suffuses it with the spiritual and divine consciousness, so that in the end the Whole of man, in his integral living, is recast and remoulded: each discipline is in charge of one thread as it were, all together weave the warp and woof in the evolution of the perfect pattern of a spiritualised and divinised humanity.
The conception of original sin is a cardinal factor in Christian discipline. The conception, of sinfulness is the very motive-power that drives the aspirant. "Seek tensely," it is said, "sorrow and sigh deep, mourn still, and stoop low till thine eye water for anguish and for pain." Remorse and grief are necessary attendants; the way of the cross is naturally the calvary strewn with pain and sorrow. It is the very opposite of what is termed the "sunlit path" in spiritual ascension. Christian mystics have made a glorious spectacle of the process of "dying to the world." Evidently, all do not go the Whole length. There are less gloomy and happier temperaments, like the present one, for example, Who show an unusual balance, a sturdy common sense even in the midst of their darkest nights, Who have chalked out as much of the sunlit path as is possible in this line. Thus this old-world mystic says: it is true one must see and admit one's sinfulness, the grosser and apparent and more violent ones as well as all the subtle varieties of it that are in you or rise up in you or come from the Enemy. They pursue you till the very end of your journey. Still you need not feel overwhelmed or completely desperate. Once you recognise the sin in you, even the bare fact of recognition means for you half the victory. The mystic says, "It is no sin as thou feelest them." The day Jesus gave himself away on the Cross, since that very day you are free, potentially free from the bondage of sin. Once you give your adherence to Him, the Enemies are rendered powerless. "They tease the soul, but they harm not the soul". Or again, as the mystic graphically phrases it: "This soul is not borne in this image of sin as a sick man, though he feel it; but he beareth it." The best way of dealing with one's enemies is not to struggle and "strive with them." The aspirant, the lover of Jesus, must remember: "He is through grace reformed to the likeness of God ('in the privy substance of his soul within') though he neither feel it nor see it."
If you are told you are still full of sins and you are not worthy to follow the path, that you must go and work out your sins first, here is your answer: "Go shrive thee better: trow not this saying, for it is false, for thou art shriven. Trust securely that thou art on the way, and thee needeth no ransacking of shrift for that that is passed, hold forth thy way and think on Jerusalem." That is to say, do not be too busy with the difficulties of the moment, but look ahead, as far as possible, fix your attention upon the goal, the intermediate steps will become easy. Jerusalem is another name of the Love of Jesus or the Bliss in Heaven. Grow in this love, your sins will fade away of themselves. "Though thou be thrust in an house with thy body, nevertheless in thine heart, where the stead of love is, thou shouldst be able to have part of that love... " What exquisite utterance, what a deep truth!
Indeed, there are one or two points, notes for the guidance of the aspirant, which I would like to mention here for their striking appositeness and simple "soothfastness." First of all with regard to the restless enthusiasm and eagerness of a novice, here is the advice given: "The fervour is so mickle in outward showing, is not only for mickleness of love that they have; but it is for littleness and weakness of their souls, that they may not bear a little touching of God.. afterward when love hath boiled out all the uncleanliness, then is the love clear and standeth still, and then is both the body and the soul mickle more in peace, and yet hath the self soul mickle more love than it had before, though it shew less outward." And again: "without any fervour outward shewed, and the less it thinketh that it loveth or seeth God, the nearer it nigheth" ('it' naturally refers to the soul). The statement is beautifully self-luminous, no explanation is required. Another hurdle that an aspirant has to face often in the passage through the Dark Night is that you are left all alone, that you are deserted by your God, that the Grace no longer favours you. Here is however the truth of the matter; "when I fall down to my frailty, then Grace withdraweth: for my falling is cause there-of, and not his fleeing." In fact, the Grace never withdraws, it is we Who withdraw and think otherwise. One more difficulty that troubles the beginner especially is with regard to the false light. The being of darkness comes in the form of the angel of light, imitates the tone of the still small voice; how to recognise, how to distinguish the two? The false light, the "feigned sun" is always found "atwixt two black rainy clouds" : they are "highing" of oneself and "lowing" of others. When you feel flattered and elated, beware it is the siren voice tempting you. The true light brings you soothing peace and meekness: the other light brings always a trail of darknessf you are soothfast and sincere you will discover it if not near you, somewhere at a distance lurking.
The ultimate truth is that God is the sole doer and the best we can do is to let him do freely without let or hindrance. "He that through Grace may see Jhesu, how that He doth all and himself doth right nought but suffereth Jhesu work in him what him liketh, he is meek." And yet one does not arrive at that condition from the beginning or all at once. "The work is not of the hour nor of a day, but of many days and years." And for a long time one has to take up one's burden and work, co-operate with the Divine working. In the process there is this double movement necessary for the full achievement. "Neither Grace only without full working of a soul that in it is nor working done without grace bringeth a soul to reforming but that one joined to that other." Mysticism is not all eccentricity and irrationality: on the contrary, sanity seems to be the very character of the higher mysticism. And it is this sanity, and even a happy sense of humour accompanying it, that makes the genuine mystic teacher say: "It is no mastery to me for to say it, but for to do it there is mastery." Amen.
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This passage from the self-conscient to the super-conscient does not imply merely a shifting of the focus of consciousness. The transmutation of consciousness involves a purer illumination, a surer power and a wider compass; it involves also a fundamental change in the very mode of being and living. It gives quite a different life-intuition and a different life-power. The change in the motif brings about a new form altogether, a re-casting and re-shaping and re-energising of the external materials as well. As the lift from mere consciousness to self-consciousness meant all the difference between an animal and a man, so the lift again from self-consciousness to super-consciousness will mean the difference of a Whole world between man and the divine creature that is to be.
Indeed it is a divine creature that should be envisaged on the next level of evolution. The mental and the moral, the psychical and the physical transfigurations which must follow the change in the basic substratum do imply such a mutation, the birth of a new species, as it were, fashioned in the nature of the gods. The vision of angels and Siddhas, which man is having ceaselessly since his birth, may be but a prophecy of the future actuality.
01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The ideal was Blake's. It will not sound so revolting if we understand what the poet meant by Hell. Hell, he explains, is simply the body, the Energy of Lifehell, because body and life on earth were so considered by the orthodox Christianity. The Christian ideal demands an absolute denial and rejection of life. Fulfilment is elsewhere, in heaven alone. That is, as we know, the ideal of the ascetic. The life of the spirit (in heaven) is a thing away from and stands against the life of the flesh (on earth). In the face of this discipline, countering it, Blake posited a union, a marriage of the two, considered incompatibles and incommensurables. Enfant terrible that he was, he took an infinite delight in a spirit of contradiction and went on expatiating on the glory of the misalliance. He declared a new apocalypse and said that Lucifer, the one called Satan, was the real God, the so-called Messiah the fake one: the apparent Milton spoke in praise of God and in dispraise of Satan, but the real, the esoteric Milton glorified Satan, Who is the true God and minimised or caricatured the counterfeit or shadow God. Here is Blakean Bible in a nutshell:
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged.. . . If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
--
Such is to be the ideal, the perfect, the spiritual man. Have we here the progenitor of the Nietzschean Superman? Both smell almost the same sulphurous atmosphere. But that also seems to lie in the direction to which the Whole world is galloping in its evolutionary course. Humanity in its agelong travail has passed through the agony, one might say, of two extreme and opposite experiences, which are epitomised in the classic phrasing of Sri Aurobindo as: (1) the Denial of the Materialist and (2) the Refusal of the Ascetic.1 Neither, however, the Spirit alone nor the body alone is man's reality; neither only the earth here nor only the heaven there embodies man's destiny. Both have to be claimed, both have to belivedubhayameva samrt, as the old sage, Yajnavalkya, declared.
The earliest dream of humanity is also the last fulfilment. The Vedic Rishis sang of the marriage of heaven and earthHeaven is my father and this Earth my mother. And Blake and Nietzsche are fiery apostles of that dream and ideal in an age crippled with doubt, falsehood, smallness, crookedness, impotence, colossal ignorance.
We welcome voices that speak of this ancient tradition, this occult Knowledge of a high Future. Recently we have come across one aspirant in the line, and being a contemporary, his views and reviews in the matter will be all the more interesting to us.2 He is Gustave Thibon, a Frenchman-not a priest or even a religious man in the orthodox sense in any way, but a country farmer, a Wholly self-educated laque. Of late he has attracted a good deal of attention from intellectuals as well as religious people, especially the Catholics, because of his remarkable conceptions which are so often unorthodox and yet so often ringing true with an old-world au thenticity.
Touching the very core of the malady of our age he says that our modern enlightenment seeks to cancel altogether the higher values and install instead the lower alone as true. Thus, for example, Marx and Freud, its twin arch priests, are brothers. Both declare that it is the lower, the under layer alone that matters: to one "the masses", to the other "the instincts". Their wild imperative roars: "Sweep away this pseudo-higher; let the instincts rule, let the pro-letariat dictate!" But more characteristic, Monsieur Thibon has made another discovery which gives the Whole value and speciality to his outlook. He says the moderns stress the lower, no doubt; but the old world stressed only the higher and neglected the lower. Therefore the revolt and wrath of the lower, the rage of Revanche in the heart of the dispossessed in the modern world. Enlightenment meant till now the cultivation and embellishment of the Mind, the conscious Mind, the rational and nobler faculties, the height and the depth: and mankind meant the princes and the great ones. In the individual, in the scheme of his culture and education, the senses were neglected, left to go their own way as they pleased; and in the collective field, the toiling masses in the same way lived and moved as best as they could under the economics of laissez-faire. So Monsieur Thibon concludes: "Salvation has never come from below. To look for it from above only is equally vain. No doubt salvation must come from the higher, but on condition that the higher completely adopts and protects the lower." Here is a vision luminous and revealing, full of great import, if we follow the right track, prophetic of man's true destiny. It is through this infiltration of the higher into the lower and the integration of the lower into the higher that mankind will reach the goal of its evolution, both individually and collectively.
But the process, Monsieur Thibon rightly asserts, must begin with the individual and within the individual. Man must "turn within, feel alive within himself", re-establish his living contact with God, the source and origin from which he has cut himself off. Man must learn to subordinate having to being. Each individual must be himself, a free and spontaneous expression. Upon such individual , upon individuals grouped naturally in smaller collectivities and not upon unformed or ill-formed Wholesale masses can a perfect human society be raised and will be raised. Monsieur Thibon insistsand very rightlyupon the variety and diversity of individual and local growths in a unified humanity and not a dead uniformity of regimented oneness. He declares, as the reviewer of the London Times succinctly puts it: "Let us abolish our insensate worship of number. Let us repeal the law of majorities. Let us work for the unity that draws together instead of idolizing the multiplicity that disintegrates. Let us understand that it is not enough for each to have a place; what matters is that each should be in his right place. For the atomized society let us substitute an organic society, one in which every man will be free to do what he alone is qualified and able to do."
So far so good. For it is not far enough. The being or becoming that is demanded in fulfilment of the divine advent in humanity must go to the very roots of life and nature, must seize God in his highest and sovereign status. No prejudice of the past, no notion of our mental habits must seek to impose its law. Thus, for example, in the matter of redeeming the senses by the influx of the higher light, our author seems to consider that the senses will remain more or less as they are, only they will be controlled, guided, used by the higher light. And he seems to think that even the sex relation (even the institution of marriage) may continue to remain, but sublimated, submitted to the laws of the Higher Order. This, according to us, is a dangerous compromise and is simply the imposition of the lower law upon the higher. Our view of the total transformation and divinisation of the Lower is altogether different. The Highest must come down Wholly and inhabit in the Lowest, the Lowest must give up altogether its own norms and lift itself into the substance and form too of the Highest.
Viewed in this light, Blake's memorable mantra attains a deeper and more momentous significance. For it is not merely Earth the senses and life and Matter that are to be uplifted and affianced to Heaven, but all that remains hidden within the bowels of the Earth, the subterranean regions of man's consciousness, the slimy viscous undergrowths, the darkest horrors and monstrosities that man and nature hide in their subconscient and inconscient dungeons of material existence, all these have to be laid bare to the solar gaze of Heaven, burnt or transmuted as demanded by the law of that Supreme Will. That is the Hell that has to be recognised, not rejected and thrown away, but taken up purified and transubstantiated into the body of Heaven itself. The hand of the Highest Heaven must extend and touch the Lowest of the lowest elements, transmute it and set it in its rightful place of honour. A mortal body reconstituted into an immemorial fossil, a lump of coal revivified into a flashing carat of diamond-that shows something of the process underlying the nuptials of which we are speaking.
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
book shows how Sri Aurobindo is working in every corner of the world. We Who are here in the Ashram still
haven't even had a glimpse of him.
There are people here Who see him and are constantly in contact
with him. They are those Who love him sincerely and sufficiently
to live according to his ideal.
--
Come with the aspiration to give yourself, to offer your Whole
being, without reserve, to the Divine Grace, and you will feel
--
part of a Whole which is a synthesis of all opposites.
27 September 1961
--
adoration ought to go only to the Supreme Lord, Who is one in
all things and all beings.
--
and to feel that it is the Divine Who acts in you, His force that
impels you and His will that supports you - not just a mental
--
Those Who accomplish the work are not in the habit of boasting.
They keep their energy for the task and leave the glory of the
--
The Queen of Jhansi Who died on the battlefield in 1858 while fighting British
troops.
--
It is impossible. Each one has his own taste and his own temperament. Nothing can be done without discipline - the Whole of
life is a discipline.
--
For those Who want to do yoga, it is very bad. Moreover, I have
already said this a considerable number of times, and if you do
--
valid example of even one person Who takes part in so
many activities and maintains a fairly high standard -
one single person in the Whole world?"
Do not forget - all of you Who are here - that we want to
realise something which does not yet exist upon earth; so it is
--
freedom and every facility for those Who are gifted in
a particular subject and want to pursue it to the full.
--
Besides, Who is perfectly disinterested? One should not pretend to be what one is not. It is better to be frank than hypocritical.
12 April 1963
--
Yes, certainly, for someone Who knows how to see, and X is very
gifted.
--
difference come to these little children Who are barely
eleven years old! It is strange.
--
idea that woman is a dangerous being Who entices you into sin.
In children, all this is still subconscious, but it influences their
--
creation is a single Whole advancing as a totality towards its
single goal - the Divine - through a collective evolution which
--
close one's eyes to it, but there are others Who prefer to
give advice or even to scold. I think that by closing one's
--
You say this, but you are one of those Who revolt (at least in
thought) against the very little discipline that is demanded when
--
All the villagers around him Who had watched him work
were astonished, and they marvelled at the sight of the
--
Why do you ask me this question? All those Who are here should
at least know what yoga means - as for practising it, that is
--
I am not sure if it has been done. It is X Who keeps it and you
should ask him for it.
--
(Regarding X, Who related her misfortunes to the captain, blaming herself for all her troubles) To console her,
I told her that blaming oneself was perhaps not always
--
It is X Who is spiritually right and you Who are wrong with a
superficial and ignorant so-called "reason".
--
If I look at my Whole life and its circumstances,
I am very happy, but I am not satisfied. Often I am
--
"For though I knew His love Who followèd
Yet was I sore adread
--
"Those Who are deficient in the free, full and intelligent
observation of a self-imposed law, must be placed in
--
To discipline one's life is not easy, even for those Who are
strong, severe with themselves, courageous and enduring.
But before trying to discipline one's Whole life, one should
at least try to discipline one activity, and persist until one succeeds.
--
Mother, do You advise this only for those Who are
practising yoga or for everybody?
--
at most an idea and not an experience, the Whole thing remains
purely mental. But if one makes a sincere and repeated effort, one
--
Naturally, those in Whom the mind is dominant can lecture
their body and provide it with all the reasons needed to overcome
--
The Supreme Lord can give his Ananda to Whomever He
wants and as He wants.
A sadhak is one Who has chosen a yogic discipline and
practises it. There are desireless men Who are not pursuing any
yoga.
--
like the Divine Whom he adores, and thus his love becomes purer
and purer. To adore the Divine in the one Whom one loves has
often been suggested as a solution, but unless one's heart and
--
result. That is why he advised those Who want to follow the
integral yoga to find their own discipline, based on the ancient
--
impurity. The Ashram as a Whole is evidently very far from
what it should be to be equal to its task and give to the world
--
the condition of each person and his link with the Whole.
8 July 1964
--
They are tragedies for those Who take them tragically - the
immense majority of human beings.
--
For those Whose consciousness is centred in the body, Who live
for the body, its desires and satisfactions, those for Whom the
truth begins and ends with the body, it is evident that food is of
--
Let those Who have confidence in doctors do as they advise
and see if it helps them to suffer less!
--
the Whole being.
It is from within that you must become master of your lower
--
governs the development of the individual, but the most developed individualities are not necessarily those in Whom the ego is
strongest - on the contrary. As the individuality perfects itself,
--
They are useful only for those Who want to do an intensive yoga
and spend five or six hours a day in yogic practices.
--
will appear on the scene Who will be guided by a divine
force coming from a woman of great spiritual power.
--
children Who have studied here need to come to grips with life
before they can be ready for the divine work, and that is why
--
the state of one Who feels that everything here is the play
Sri Aurobindo sent a special messenger to Delhi advising Indian leaders to accept,
--
change of the Whole nature which You have predicted?
The descent of the forerunners of the supramental forces is a
--
The "supreme and radical" change of the Whole nature
can only come about after a long and slow preparation, and
--
Those Who have a supramentalised body will not be subject to
the law of aging; consequently the question of age will not arise
--
other for those Who don't know how to do it, but less dangerous.
28 July 1965
--
Does every person Who comes to earth have a definite goal he must achieve in this life, and does he achieve
it unconsciously in spite of himself?
--
People Who come to the Ashram for the first time
are often delighted with their visit and full of praise
--
Here is the Whole quotation which I had prepared in advance for
those Who want to know the reason for the present situation. I
am sending it to you so that your question becomes unnecessary.
--
Christ and Buddha have come and gone but it is Rudra Who still
holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the
--
me and keep me in such happiness, I Who so little deserve
it?"
--
One sees that the world as a Whole is presently in
a sort of disequilibrium and chaos. Does this mean that
--
India ought to be the spiritual guide Who explains what is happening and helps to hasten the movement. But unfortunately,
in her blind ambition to imitate the West, she has become
--
Every group, if it is a real one - that is, one made up according to the ability of the individuals Who compose it - must
necessarily be hierarchical.
--
(2) The indiscipline of certain members refusing Wholly or
in part to occupy the place assigned to them.
--
Fear is an invention of the hostile forces Who have created it as
the best means of dominating living beings, animals and men.
Those Who are pure - that is to say, exclusively under the
Divine influence - have no fear.
--
So long as the Ashram was reserved for those Who wanted to
practise the yoga, it was natural to be strict.
--
that "the Ashram was reserved for those Who wanted
to practise the yoga"; and again, I believe you have
--
(2) "The Ashram was reserved for those Who wanted
to practise the yoga" - that is to say, only for those Who
are practising consciously?
--
for those of us Who are not yet awake, Who are still unconscious? What is the explanation for this opportunity,
this good fortune we have been granted?
--
for moulding the character of those Who want to progress.
13 April 1966
--
the Whole conversation, but the impression that remains
is that You are not very pleased with the questions I ask
--
of a large number of human beings Who think like them.
But the Communists and all those Who have faith in the
Communist ideal have the opposite opinion, not to mention
--
from the Divine point of view - the Divine Who does not
have an opinion but a total vision of everything as a Whole
and of the goal to be achieved, which is the only thing that
--
people Who are here, there are only 250 or so Who understand Sri Aurobindo's yoga, only forty-five Who practise
it, five Who are capable of realisation and only one Who
can be transformed." What is the truth?
--
It is true that the number of those Who take the yoga
seriously is not considerable...
--
of us Who take the yoga seriously. Why?
It is quite simply unconsciousness, incoercible TAMAS.
--
Those Who sincerely want to learn have all the possibilities to
do so here. The only thing that one has outside, but does not
--
It is the pressure of the force of Truth on the Whole earth
which is causing disorder, confusion and falsehood to spring
--
Are there many people - I am not speaking of those Who
have a religion: they learn a catechism when they are young and
--
- are there many Who believe in the Divine? Not in Europe
anyway. But even here, there are quite a number Who by tradition have a "family deity", yet it doesn't bother them at all
to take their deity and throw it into the Ganges when they get
displeased! It does happen - I know some people Who did it.
They had a family Kali in their house, they actually did take
--
(this is fantastic!), those people Who study Nature, really study it
thoroughly, how everything functions and is brought about and
--
Your reply explains nothing, for isn't it You Who
orders these expenditures?
--
Widening the consciousness is necessary for all Who want to live
a free and intelligent life, even without there being any question
--
On the condition of the one to Whom I write the card and on his
state of consciousness, which varies according to the moment
--
The ordinary man is often guided in life by his conscience, isn't he? So what becomes of one Who has no
conscience, Who has lost it by having disregarded it too
often?
--
which can quite easily take possession of one Who has disregarded the advice of his conscience.
But all this is a mental approximation of the Truth. It is not
--
(2) For those Who have seriously begun the yoga in the body,
the physical relation is of course a powerful aid.
--
- a little vague, a little blurred - of the people Who were there,
of the circumstances, of the events, and that makes a psychic
--
for those Who know how to do it.
We are at an especially favourable moment in the universal
--
is done for them. Those Who make an effort become conscious
of the answer they receive, and there are those Whose aspiration is sufficiently strong and sincere for them to be constantly
conscious of the help they are given.
01.10 - Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Nicholas Berdyaev is an ardent worker, as a Russian is naturally expected to be, in the cause of the spiritual rehabilitation of mankind. He is a Christian, a neo-Christian: some of his conclusions are old-world truths and bear repetition and insistence; others are of a more limited, conditional and even doubtful nature. His conception of the value of human person, the dignity and the high reality he gives to it, can never be too welcome in a world where the individual seems to have gone the way of vanished empires and kings and princes. But even more important and interesting is the view he underlines that the true person is a spiritual being, that is to say, it is quite other than the empirical ego that man normally is"not this that one worships" as the Upanishads too declare. Further, in his spiritual being man, the individual, is not simply a portion or a fraction; he is, on the contrary, an integer, a complete Whole, a creative focus; the true individual is a microcosm yet holding in it and imaging the macrocosm. Only perhaps greater stress is laid upon the aspect of creativity or activism. An Eastern sage, a Vedantin, would look for the true spiritual reality behind the flux of forces: Prakriti or Energy is only the executive will of the Purusha, the Conscious Being. The personality in Nature is a formulation and emanation of the transcendent impersonality.
There is another aspect of personality as viewed by Berdyaev which involves a bias of the more orthodox Christian faith: the Christ is inseparable from the Cross. So he says: "There is no such thing as personality if there is no capacity for suffering. Suffering is inherent in God too, if he is a personality, and not merely an abstract idea. God shares in the sufferings of men. He yearns for responsive love. There are divine as well as human passions and therefore divine or creative personality must always suffer to the end of time. A condition of anguish and distress is inherent in it." The view is logically enforced upon the Christian, it is said, if he is to accept incarnation, God becoming flesh. Flesh cannot but be weak. This very weakness, so human, is and must be specially characteristic of God also, if he is one with man and his lover and saviour.
01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Religious bodies that are formed through the bhakti and puja for one man, social reconstructions forced by the will and power of a single individual, have already in the inception this grain of incapacity and disease and death that they are not an integrally self-conscious creation, they are not, as a Whole, intelligent and wide awake and therefore constantly responsive to the truths and ideals and realities for which they exist, for which at least, their founder intended them to exist. The light at the apex is the only light and the entire structure is but the shadow of that light; the Whole thing has the aspect of a dark mass galvanised into red-hot activity by the passing touch of a dynamo. Immediately however the solitary light fails and the dynamo stops, there is nothing but the original darkness and inertiatoma asit tamasa gudham agre.
Man, however great and puissant he may be, is a perishable thing. People Who gather or are gathered round a man and cling to him through the tie of a personal relation must fall off and scatter when the man passes away and the personal tie loses its hold. What remains is a memory, a gradually fading memory. But memory is hardly a creative force, it is a dead, at best, a moribund thing; the real creative power is Presence. So when the great man's presence, the power that crystallises is gone, the Whole edifice crumbles and vanishes into air or remains a mere name.
Love and admiration for a mahapurusha is not enough, even faith in his gospel is of little avail, nor can actual participation, consecrated work and labour in his cause save the situation; it is only when the principles, the bare realities for which the mahapurusha stands are in the open forum and men have the full and free opportunity of testing and assimilating them, it is only when individuals thus become living embodiments of those principles and realities that we do create a thing universal and permanent, as universal and permanent as earthly things may be. Principles only can embrace and unify the Whole of humanity; a particular personality shall always create division and limitation. By placing the man in front, we erect a wall between the Principle and men at large. It is the principles, on the contrary, that should be given the place of honour: our attempt should be to keep back personalities and make as little use of them as possible. Let the principles work and create in their freedom and power, untrammelled by the limitations of any mere human vessel.
We are quite familiar with this cry so rampant in our democratic ageprinciples and no personalities! And although we admit the justice of it, yet we cannot ignore the trenchant one-sidedness which it involves. It is perhaps only a reaction, a swing to the opposite extreme of a mentality given too much to personalities, as the case generally has been in the past. It may be necessary, as a corrective, but it belongs only to a temporary stage. Since, however, we are after a universal ideal, we must also have an integral method. We shall have to curb many of our susceptibilities, diminish many of our apprehensions and soberly strike a balance between opposite extremes.
We do not speak like politicians or banias; but the very truth of the matter demands such a policy or line of action. It is very well to talk of principles and principles alone, but what are principles unless they take life and form in a particular individual? They are airy nothings, notions in the brain of logicians and metaphysicians, fit subjects for discussion in the academy, but they are devoid of that vital urge which makes them creative agencies. We have long lines of philosophers, especially European, Who most scrupulously avoided all touch of personalities, Whose utmost care was to keep principles pure and unsullied; and the upshot was that those principles remained principles only, barren and infructuous, some thing like, in the strong and puissant phrase of BaudelaireLa froide majest de la femme strile. And on the contrary, we have had other peoples, much addicted to personalitiesespecially in Asia Who did not care so much for abstract principles as for concrete embodiments; and what has been the result here? None can say that they did not produce anything or produced only still-born things. They produced living creaturesephemeral, some might say, but creatures that lived and moved and had their days.
But, it may be asked, what is the necessity, what is the purpose in making it all a one man show? Granting that principles require personalities for their fructuation and vital functioning, what remains to be envisaged is not one personality but a plural personality, the people at large, as many individuals of the human race as can be consciously imbued with those principles. When principles are made part and parcel of, are concentrated in a single solitary personality, they get "cribbed and cabined," they are vitiated by the idiosyncrasies of the man, they come to have a narrower field of application; they are emptied of the general verities they contain and finally cease to have any effect.
The thing, however, is that what you call principles do not drop from heaven in their virgin purity and all at once lay hold of mankind en masse. It is always through a particular individual that a great principle manifests itself. Principles do not live in the general mind of man and even if they live, they live secreted and unconscious; it is only a puissant personality, Who has lived the principle, that can bring it forward into life and action, can awaken, like the Vedic Dawn, what was dead in allmritam kanchana bodhayanti. Men in general are by themselves 'inert and indifferent; they have little leisure or inclination to seek, from any inner urge of their own, for principles and primal truths; they become conscious of these only when expressed and embodied in some great and rare soul. An Avatar, a Messiah or a Prophet is the centre, the focus through which a Truth and Law first dawns and then radiates and spreads abroad. The little lamps are all lighted by the sparks that the great torch scatters.
And yet we yield to none in our demand for holding forth the principles always and ever before the wide open gaze of all. The principle is there to make people self-knowing and self-guiding; and the man is also there to illustrate that principle, to serve as the hope and prophecy of achievement. The living soul is there to touch your soul, if you require the touch; and the principle is there by which to test and testify. For, we do not ask anybody to be a mere automaton, a blind devotee, a soul without individual choice and initiative. On the contrary, we insist on each and every individual to find his own soul and stand on his own Truththis is the fundamental principle we declare, the only creedif creed it be that we ask people to note and freely follow. We ask all people to be fully self-dependent and self-illumined, for only thus can a real and solid reconstruction of human nature and society be possible; we do not wish that they should bow down ungrudgingly to anything, be it a principle or a personality. In this respect we claim the very first rank of iconoclasts and anarchists. And along with that, if we still choose to remain an idol-lover and a hero-worshipper, it is because we recognise that our mind, human as it is, being not a simple equation but a complex paradox, the idol or the hero symbolises for us and for those Who so will, the very iconoclasm and anarchism and perhaps other more positive things as wellwhich we behold within and seek to manifest.
The world is full of ikons and archons; we cannot escape them, even if we try the world itself being a great ikon and as great an archon. Those Who swear by principles, swear always by some personality or other, if not by a living creature then by a lifeless book, if not by Religion then by Science, if not by the East then by the West, if not by Buddha or Christ then by Bentham or Voltaire. Only they do it unwittingly they change one set of personalities for another and believe they have rejected them all. The veils of Maya are a thousand-fold tangle and you think you have entirely escaped her when you have only run away from one fold to fall into another. The wise do not attempt to reject and negate Maya, but consciously accept herfreedom lies in a knowing affirmation. So we too have accepted and affirmed an icon, but we have done it consciously and knowingly; we are not bound by our idol, we see the truth of it, and we serve and utilise it as best as we may.
***
01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A similar compilation was published in the Arya, called The Eternal Wisdom (Les Paroles ternelles, in French) a portion of which appeared later on in book-form: that was more elaborate, the contents were arranged in such a way that no comments were needed, they were self-explanatory, divided as they were in chapters and sections and subsections with proper headings, the Whole thing put in a logical and organised sequence. Huxley's compilation begins under the title of the Upanishadic text "That art Thou" with this saying of Eckhart: "The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without". It will be interesting to note that the Arya compilation too starts with the same idea under the title "The God of All; the God Who is in All", the first quotation being from Philolaus, "The Universe is a Unity".The Eternal Wisdom has an introduction called "The Song of Wisdom" which begins with this saying from the Book of Wisdom: "We fight to win sublime Wisdom; therefore men call us warriors".
Huxley gives only one quotation from Sri Aurobindo under the heading "God in the World". Here it is:
--
"To its heights we can always come. For those of us Who are still splashing about in the lower ooze, the phrase has a rather ironical ring. Nevertheless, in the light of even the most distant acquaintance with the heights and the fullness, it is possible to understand what its author means. To discover the Kingdom of God exclusively within oneself is easier than to discover it, not only there, but also in the outer worlds of minds and things and living creatures. It is easier because the heights within reveal themselves to those Who are ready to exclude from their purview all that lies without. And though this exclusion may be a painful and mortificatory process, the fact remains that it is less arduous than the process of inclusion, by which we come to know the fullness as well as the heights of spiritual life. Where there is exclusive concentration on the heights within, temptations and distractions are avoided and there is a general denial and suppression. But when the hope is to know God inclusivelyto realise the divine Ground in the world as well as in the soul, temptations and distractions must not be avoided, but submitted to and used as opportunities for advance; there must be no suppression of outward-turning activities, but a transformation of them so that they become sacramental."
The neatness of the commentary cannot be improved upon. Only with regard to the "ironical ring" of which Huxley speaks, it has just to be pointed out, as he himself seems to understand, that the "we" referred to in the phrase does not mean humanity in general that 'splashes about in the lower ooze' but those Who have a sufficiently developed inner spiritual life.
There is a quotation from Lao Tzu put under the heading "Grace and Free Will": "It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose".
01.11 - The Basis of Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In Europe such a contingency did not arise, because the religious spirit, rampant in the days of Inquisitions and St. Bartholomews, died away: it died, and (or, because) it was replaced by a spirit that was felt as being equally, if not more, au thentic and, which for the moment, suffused the Whole consciousness with a large and high afflatus, commensurate with the amplitude of man's aspiration. I refer, of course, to the spirit of the Renaissance. It was a spirit profane and secular, no doubt, but on that level it brought a catholicity of temper and a richness in varied interesta humanistic culture, as it is calledwhich constituted a living and unifying ideal for Europe. That spirit culminated in the great French Revolution which was the final coup de grace to all that still remained of mediaevalism, even in its outer structure, political and economical.
In India the spirit of renascence came very late, late almost by three centuries; and even then it could not flood the Whole of the continent in all its nooks and corners, psychological and physical. There were any number of pockets (to use a current military phrase) left behind which guarded the spirit of the past and offered persistent and obdurate resistance. Perhaps, such a dispensation was needed in India and inevitable also; inevitable, because the religious spirit is closest to India's soul and is its most direct expression and cannot be uprooted so easily; needed, because India's and the world's future demands it and depends upon it.
Only, the religious spirit has to be bathed and purified and enlightened by the spirit of the renascence: that is to say, one must learn and understand and realize that Spirit is the thing the one thing needfulTamevaikam jnatha; 'religions' are its names and forms, appliances and decorations. Let us have by all means the religious spirit, the fundamental experience that is the inmost truth of all religions, that is the matter of our soul; but in our mind and life and body let there be a luminous catholicity, let these organs and instruments be trained to see and compare and appreciate the variety, the numberless facets which the one Spirit naturally presents to the human consciousness. Ekam sat viprh bahudh vadanti. It is an ancient truth that man discovered even in his earliest seekings; but it still awaits an adequate expression and application in life.
--
India's historical development is marked by a special characteristic which is at once the expression of her inmost nature and the setting of a problem which she has to solve for herself and for the Whole human race. I have spoken of the diversity and divergence of affiliations in a modern social unit. But what distinguishes India from all other peoples is that the diversity and divergence have culminated here in contradictoriness and mutual exclusion.
The first extremes that met in India and fought and gradually coalesced to form a single cultural and social Whole were, as is well known, the Aryan and the non-Aryan. Indeed, the geologists tell us, the land itself is divided into two parts structurally quite different and distinct, the Deccan plateau and the Himalayan ranges with the Indo-Gangetic plain: the former is formed out of the most ancient and stable and, on the Whole, horizontally bedded rocks of the earth, while the latter is of comparatively recent origin, formed out of a more flexible and weaker belt (the Himalayan region consisting of a colossal flexing and crumpling of strata). The disparity is so much that a certain group of geologists hold that the Deccan plateau did not at all form part of the Asiatic continent, but had drifted and dashed into it:in fact the Himalayas are the result of this mighty impact. The usual division of an Aryan and a Dravidian race may be due to a memory of the clash of the two continents and their races.
However, coming to historical times, we see wave after wave of the most heterogeneous and disparate elementsSakas and Huns and Greeks, each bringing its quota of exotic materialenter into the oceanic Indian life and culture, lose their separate foreign identity and become part and parcel of the common Whole. Even so,a single unitary body was formed out of such varied and shifting materialsnot in the political, but in a socio-religious sense. For a catholic religious spirit, not being solely doctrinal and personal, admitted and embraced in its supple and wide texture almost an infinite variety of approaches to the Divine, of forms and norms of apprehending the Beyond. It has been called Hinduism: it is a vast synthesis of multiple affiliations. It expresses the characteristic genius of India and hence Hinduism and Indianism came to be looked upon as synonymous terms. And the same could be defined also as Vedic religion and culture, for its invariable basis the bed-rock on which it stood firm and erectwas the Vedas, the Knowledge seen by the sages. But there had already risen a voice of dissidence and discord that of Buddha, not so much, perhaps, of Buddha as of Buddhism. The Buddhistic enlightenment and discipline did not admit the supreme authority of the Vedas; it sought other bases of truth and reality. It was a great denial; and it meant and worked for a vital schism. The denial of the Vedas by itself, perhaps, would not be serious, but it became so, as it was symptomatic of a deeper divergence. Denying the Vedas, the Buddhistic spirit denied life. It was quite a new thing in the Indian consciousness and spiritual discipline. And it left such a stamp there that even today it stands as the dominant character of the Indian outlook. However, India's synthetic genius rose to the occasion and knew how to bridge the chasm, close up the fissure, and present again a body Whole and entire. Buddha became one of the Avataras: the discipline of Nirvana and Maya was reserved as the last duty to be performed at the end of life, as the culmination of a full-length span of action and achievement; the way to Moksha lay through Dharma and Artha and Kama, Sannyasa had to be built upon Brahmacharya and Garhasthya. The integral ideal was epitomized by Kalidasa in his famous lines about the character of the Raghus:
They devoted themselves to study in their boyhood, in youth they pursued the objects of life; when old they took to spiritual austerities, and in the end they died united with the higher consciousness.
--
Nature, on the Whole, has solved the problem of blood fusion and mental fusion of different peoples, although on a smaller scale. India today presents the problem on a larger scale and on a higher or deeper level. The demand is for a spiritual fusion and unity. Strange to say, although the Spirit is the true bed-rock of unitysince, at bottom, it means identityit is on this plane that mankind has not yet been able to really meet and coalesce. India's genius has been precisely working in the line of a perfect solution of this supreme problem.
Islam comes with a full-fledged spiritual soul and a mental and vital formation commensurable with that inner being and consciousness. It comes with a dynamic spirit, a warrior mood, that aims at conquering the physical world for the Lord, a temperament which Indian spirituality had not, or had lost long before, if she had anything of it. This was, perhaps, what Vivekananda meant when he spoke graphically of a Hindu soul with a Muslim body. The Islamic dispensation, however, brings with it not only something complementary, but also something contradictory, if not for anything else, at least for the strong individuality which does not easily yield to assimilation. Still, in spite of great odds, the process of assimilation was going on slowly and surely. But of late it appears to have come to a dead halt; difficulties have been presented which seem insuperable.
--
To be loyal to one's line of self-fulfilment, to follow one's self-law, swadharma, Wholly and absolutelywithout this no spiritual life is possible and yet not to come into clash with other lines and loyalties, nay more, to be in positive harmony with them, is a problem which has not been really solved. It was solved, perhaps, in the consciousness of a Ramakrishna, a few individuals here and there, but it has always remained a source of conflict and disharmony in the general mind even in the field of spirituality. The clash of spiritual or religious loyalties has taken such an acute form in India today, they have been carried to the bitter extreme, in order, we venture to say, that the final synthesis might be absolute and irrevocable. This is India's mission to work out, and this is the lesson which she brings to the world.
The solution can come, first, by going to the true religion of the Spirit, by being truly spiritual and not merely religious, for, as we have said, real unity lies only in and through the Spirit, since Spirit is one and indivisible; secondly, by bringing down somethinga great part, indeed, if not the Wholeof this puissant and marvellous Spirit into our life of emotions and sensations and activities.
If it is said that this is an ideal for the few only, not for the mass, our answer to that is the answer of the GitaYad yad acharati sreshthah. Let the few then practise and achieve the ideal: the mass will have to follow as far as it is possible and necessary. It is the very character of the evolutionary system of Nature, as expressed in the principle of symbiosis, that any considerable change in one place (in one species) is accompanied by a corresponding change in the same direction in other contiguous places (in other associated species) in order that the poise and balance of the system may be maintained.
01.12 - Goethe, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
No problem is so vital to the human consciousness as the problem of Evilits why and wherefore It is verily the Sphinx Riddle. In all ages and in all climes man has tried to answer; the answers are of an immense variety, but none seems to be sure and certain. Goethe's was an ardent soul seeking to embrace the living truth Whole and entire; the problem was not merely of philosophical interest to him, but a burning question of life and deathlife and death of the body and even of the soul.
One view considers Evil as coeval with Good: the Prince of Evil is God's peer, equal to him in all ways, absolutely separate, independent and self-existent. Light and Darkness are eternal principles living side by side, possessing equal reality. For, although it is permissible to the individual to pass out of the Darkness and enter into Light, the Darkness itself does not disappear: it remains and maintains its domain, and even it is said that some human beings are meant eternally for this domain. That is the Manichean principle and that also is fundamentally the dualistic conception of chit-achit in some Indian systems (although the principle of chit or light is usually given a higher position and priority of excellence).
The Christian too accepts the dual principle, but does not give equal status to the two. Satan is there, an eternal reality: it is anti-God, it seeks to oppose God, frustrate his work. It is the great tempter Whose task it is to persuade, to inspire man to remain always an earthly creature and never turn to know or live in God. Now the crucial question that arises is, what is the necessity of this Antagonist in God's scheme of creation? What is the meaning of this struggle and battle? God could have created, if he had chosen, a world without Evil. The orthodox Christi an answer is that in that case one could not have fully appreciated the true value and glory of God's presence. It is to manifest and proclaim the great victory that the strife and combat has been arranged in which Man triumphs in the end and God's work stands vindicated. The place of Satan is always Hell, but he cannot drag down a soul into his pit to hold it there eternally (although according to one doctrine there are or may be certain eternally damned souls).
Goe the carries the process of convergence and even harmony of the two powers a little further and shows that although they are contrary apparently, they are not contradictory principles in essence. For, Satan is, after all, God's servant, even a very obedient servant; he is an instrument in the hand of the Almighty to work out His purpose. The purpose is to help and lead man, although in a devious way, towards a greater understanding, a nearer approach to Himself.
--
Satan is jealous of man Who is God's favourite. He tells God that his partiality to man is misplaced. God has put into man a little of his light (reason and intelligence and something more perhaps), but to what purpose? Man tries to soar, he thinks he flies high and wide, but in fact he is and will be an insect that "lies always in the grass and sings its old song in the grass." God answers that whatever the perplexity in which man now is, in the end he will come out and reach the Light with a greater and richer experience of it. Satan smiles in return and says he will prove otherwise. Given a free hand, he can do whatever he likes with man: "Dust shall he eat and with a relish." God willingly agrees to the challenge: there is no harm in Satan's trying his hand. Indeed, Satan will prove to be a good companion to man; for man is normally prone to inertia and sinks into repose and rest and stagnation. Satan will be the goad, the force that drives towards ceaseless activity. For activity is life, and without activity no progress.
Thus, as sanctioned by God, there is a competition, a wager between man and Satan. The pact between the parties is this that, on the one hand, Satan will serve man here in life upon earth, and on the other hand, in return, man will have to serve Satan there, on the other side of life. That is to say, Satan will give the Whole world to man to enjoy, man will have to give Satan only his soul. Man in his ignorance says he does not care for his soul, does not know of a there or elsewhere: he will be satisfied if he gets what he wants upon earth. That, evidently, is the demand of what is familiarly known as life-force (lan vital): the utmost fulfilment of the life-force is what man stands for, although the full significance of the movement may not be clear to him or even to Satan at the moment. For life-force does not necessarily drag man down, as its grand finale as it were, into hellhowever much Satan might wish it to be so. In what way, we shall see presently. Now Satan promises man all that he would desire and even more: he would give him his fill so' that he will ask for no more. Man takes up the challenge and declares that his hunger is insatiable, whatever Satan can bring to it, it will take in and press on: satisfaction and satiety will never come in his way. Satan thinks he knows better, for he is armed with a master weapon to lay man low and make him cry halt!
Love Human and Love Divine
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The total eradication of Evil from the world and human nature and the remoulding of a terrestrial life in the substance and pattern of the Highest Good that is beyond all dualities is a conception which it was not for Goe the to envisage. In the order of reality or existence, first there is the consciousness of division, of trenchant separation in which Good is equated with not-evil and evil with not-good. This is the outlook of individualised consciousness. Next, as the consciousness grows and envelops the Whole existence, good and evil are both embraced and are found to form a secret and magic harmony. That is the universal or cosmic consciousness. And Goethe's genius seems to be an outflowering of something of this status of consciousness. But there is still a higher status, the status of transcendence in which evil is not simply embraced but dissolved and even transmuted into a supreme reality of which it is an aberration, a reflection or projection, a lower formulation. That is the mystery of a spiritual realisation to which Goe the aspired perhaps, but had not the necessary initiation to enter into.
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01.12 - Three Degrees of Social Organisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But Right is not the only term on which an ideal or even a decent society can be based. There is another term which can serve equally well, if not better. I am obviously referring to the conception of duty. I tis an old world conception; it isa conception particularly familiar to the East. The Indian term for Right is also the term for dutyadhikara means both. In Europe too, in more recent times, when after the frustration of the dream of a new world envisaged by the French Revolution, man was called upon again to rise and hope, it was Mazzini Who brought forward the new or discarded principle as a mantra replacing the other more dangerous one. A hierarchy of duties was given by him as the pattern of a fulfilled ideal life. In India, in our days the distinction between the two attitudes was very strongly insisted upon by the great Vivekananda.
Vivekananda said that if human society is to be remodelled, one must first of all learn not to think and act in terms of claims and rights but in terms of duties and obligations. Fulfil your duties conscientiously, the rights will take care of themselves; it is such an attitude that can give man the right poise, the right impetus, the right outlook with regard to a collective living. If instead of each one demanding what one considers as one's dues and consequently scrambling and battling for them, and most often not getting them or getting at a ruinous pricewhat made Arjuna cry, "What shall I do with all this kingdom if in regaining it I lose all my kith and kin dear to me?"if, indeed, instead of claiming one's right, one were content to know one's duty and do it as it should be done, then not only there would be peace and amity upon earth, but also each one far from losing anything would find miraculously all that one most needs and must have,the necessary, the right rights and all.
01.13 - T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Our poet is too self-conscious, he himself feels that he has not the perfect voice. A Homer, even a Milton possesses a unity of tone and a Wholeness of perception which are denied to the modern. To the modern, however, the old masters are not subtle enough, broad enough, psychological enough, let us say the word, spiritual enough. And yet the poetic inspiration, more than the religious urge, needs the injunction not to be busy with too many things, but to be centred upon the one thing needful, viz., to create poetically and not to discourse philosophically or preach prophetically. Not that it is impossible for the poet to swallow the philosopher and the prophet, metabolising them into the substance of his bone and marrow, of "the trilling wire in his blood", as Eliot graphically expresses. That perhaps is the consummation towards which poetry is tending. But at present, in Eliot, at least, the strands remain distinct, each with its own temper and rhythm, not fused and moulded into a single streamlined form of beauty. Our poet flies high, very high indeed at times, often or often he flies low, not disdaining the perilous limit of bathos. Perhaps it is all wilful, it is a mannerism which he cherishes. The mannerism may explain his psychology and enshrine his philosophy. But the poet, the magician is to be looked for elsewhere. In the present collection of poems it is the philosophical, exegetical, discursive Eliot Who dominates: although the high lights of the subject-matter may be its justification. Still even if we have here doldrums like
That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence
--
Here the poet is almost grimly tense, concentrated and has not allowed himself to be dissipated by thinkings and arguments, has confined himself Wholly to a living experience. That is because the poet has since then moved up and sought a more rarefied air, a more even and smooth temper. The utter and absolute poetic ring of the Inferno is difficult to maintain in the Paradiso, unless and until the poet transforms himself Wholly into the Rishi, like the poet of the Gita or the Upanishads.
"East Coker"
01.14 - Nicholas Roerich, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The call that stirred a Western soul, made him a wanderer over the world in quest of the Holy Grail and finally lodged him in the Home of the Snows is symbolic of a more than individual destiny. It is representative of the secret history of a Whole culture and civilisation that have been ruling humanity for some centuries, its inner want and need and hankering and fulfilment. The West shall come to the East and be reborn. That is the prophecy of occult seers and sages.
I speak of Roerich as a Western soul, but more precisely perhaps he is a soul of the mid-region (as also in another sense we shall see subsequently) intermediary between the East and the West. His external make-up had all the characteristic elements of the Western culture, but his mind and temperament, his inner soul was oriental. And yet it was not the calm luminous staticancientsoul that an Indian or a Chinese sage is; it is a nomad soul, newly awakened, young and fresh and ardent, something primitive, pulsating with the unspoilt green sap of life something in the manner of Whitman. And that makes him all the more representative of the young and ardent West yearning for the light that was never on sea or land.
Is it not strange that one should look to the East for the light? There is a light indeed that dwells in the setting suns, but that is the inferior light, the light that moves level with the earth, pins us down to the normal and ordinary life and consciousness: it" leads into the Night, into Nihil, pralaya. It is the light of the morning sun that man looks up to in his forward march, the sun that rises in the East Whom the Vedic Rishi invoked in these magnificent lines:
Lo, the supreme light of all lights is come, a vast and varied consciousness is born in us. . . .
--
Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek In Golgotha him dead Who lives in heaven
the pilgrim soul of Roerich declares with but equal vehemence and assurance:
--
Roerich is one of the prophets and seers Who have ever been acclaiming and preparing the Golden Age, the dream that humanity has been dreaming continuously since its very childhood, that is to say, when there will be peace and harmony on earth, when racial, cultural or ideological egoism will no longer divide man and mana thing that seems today a chimera and a hallucinationwhen there will be one culture, one civilisation, one spiritual life welding all humanity into a single unit of life luminous and beautiful. Roerich believes that such a consummation can arrive only or chiefly through the growth of the sense of beauty, of the aesthetic temperament, of creative labour leading to a wider and higher consciousness. Beauty, Harmony, Light, Knowledge, Culture, Love, Delight are cardinal terms in his vision of the deeper and higher life of the future.
The stress of the inner urge to the heights and depths of spiritual values and realities found special and significant expression in his paintings. It is a difficult problem, a problem which artists and poets are tackling today with all their skill and talent. Man's consciousness is no longer satisfied with the customary and the ordinary actions and reactions of life (or thought), with the old-world and time-worn modes and manners. It is no more turned to the apparent and the obvious, to the surface forms and movements of things. It yearns to look behind and beyond, for the secret mechanism, the hidden agency that really drives things. Poets and artists are the vanguards of the age to come, prophets and pioneers preparing the way for the Lord.
Roerich discovered and elaborated his own technique to reveal that which is secret, express that which is not expressed or expressible. First of all, he is symbolical and allegorical: secondly, the choice of his symbols and allegories is hieratic, that is to say, the subject-matter refers to objects and events connected with saints and legends, shrines and enchanted places, hidden treasures, spirits and angels, etc. etc.; thirdly, the manner or style of execution is what we may term pantomimic, in other words, concrete, graphic, dramatic, even melodramatic. He has a special predilection for geometrical patterns the artistic effect of whichbalance, regularity, fixity, soliditywas greatly utilised by the French painter Czanne and poet Mallarm Who seem to have influenced Roerich to a considerable degree. But this Northerner had not the reticence, the suavity, the tonic unity of the classicist, nor the normality and clarity of the Latin temperament. The prophet, the priest in him was the stronger element and made use of the artist as the rites andceremoniesmudras and chakrasof his vocation demanded. Indeed, he stands as the hierophant of a new cultural religion and his paintings and utterances are, as it were, gestures that accompany a holy ceremonial.
A Russian artist (Monsieur Benois) has stressed upon the primitivealmost aboriginalelement in Roerich and was not happy over it. Well, as has been pointed out by other prophets and thinkers, man today happens to be so sophisticated, artificial, material, cerebral that a [all-back seems to be necessary for him to take a new leap forward on to a higher ground. The pure aesthete is a closed system, with a consciousness immured in an ivory tower; but man is something more. A curious paradox. Man can reach the highest, realise the integral truth when he takes his leap, not from the relatively higher levels of his consciousness his intellectual and aesthetic and even moral status but when he can do so from his lower levels, when the physico-vital element in him serves as the springing-board. The decent and the beautiful the classic grace and aristocracyform one aspect of man, the aspect of "light"; but the aspect of energy and power lies precisely in him where the aboriginal and the barbarian find also a lodging. Man as a mental being is naturally sattwic, but prone to passivity and weakness; his physico-vital reactions, on the other hand, are obscure and crude, simple and vehement, but they have life and energy and creative power, they are there to be trained and transfigured, made effective instruments of a higher illumination.
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
sometimes moulds himself according to your outer aspirations, and if you live like the devotees Who alternate
between periods of estrangement and embrace, of ecstasy
--
spite of this experience my Whole being is not offered to
You. What stupidity! How can I change this?
--
To establish the reign of the Divine on earth, Who is
slower - man or the Divine Himself?
--
that the Force can transform the Whole being and finally divinise
the physical body.
--
Two extremely rich men Who claim to be very religious
and virtuous, are not paying what they owe according
--
Kali's force is necessary only for those Who are not yet open to
Divine Love. For one Who is open to Divine Love, nothing more
is needed.
--
It is true that the path is very long, but for one Who follows it
with sincerity, it is really very interesting, and at every step one
--
It is the same phenomenon as for the Divine Who is at the
centre of our being, etc. and at the same time is beyond the creation, the Divine towards Whom the Whole creation is moving,
but Whom it could never reach if it did not carry him in itself.
One must go beyond notions of space and Matter to be able
--
How can one hasten the day when the Whole being will
be able to say, "I am Yours - Yours alone"?
--
But few are they Who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light."7
--
the Grace that can bestow this state - even in those Who by
Tapasya have abolished their ego.
--
sadhak Who aspires for transformation?
This is the great mystery of creation: immutable and yet eternally
--
The Divine is the goal, the path and the one Who treads
the path. But isn't a person Who is not advancing towards
the Divine also the Divine?
All are the Divine, but very few are those Who know it and fewer
still are those Who want to realise it consciously. This explains
Questions and Answers 1953, CWM, Vol. 5, p. 82.
--
This possibility is open to all Whose aspiration is fervent.
1 November 1968
--
It is only the Asuras and a few great hostile beings Who
refuse and oppose the Divine even though they know Who He is.
21 November 1968
--
"None can reach heaven Who has not passed through
hell."18
--
of its parts is a veritable hell. But those Who have surrendered
to the Divine and been adopted by Him are surrounded by the
--
"His failure is not failure Whom God leads"19
Because it is part of the play?
0.12 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education Who began writing to the Mother at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mother,
--
unified the Whole of one's being around the psychic centre.
This unification is indispensable if one wants to be the
--
concrete fact, as all Who have had the experience know.
Blessings.
--
Those Who have had the memory of past lives have declared the
reality of rebirth.
There have been - and there still are - beings Whose inner
consciousness is sufficiently developed for them to know for
--
experience for one Who has had it.
5 November 1969
--
in oneself considerably changes one's Whole way of being and
gives an exceptional control over all activities, mental, vital and
--
he Who has become conscious of the Divine and become His
faithful instrument can avoid error, if he is careful to act only at
--
It must be said that this is not easy. Only he Who no longer
has any ego can do it correctly.
--
elder brothers and sisters Who take a lot of trouble to help you.
Blessings.
--
world and the Whole universe - to become conscious once more
of being Him.
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education Who began writing to the Mother at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mother,
--
There is no one for Whom it is impossible to realise the Divine.
Only, for some it will take many, many lives, whereas there are
others Who will do it in this very lifetime. It is a question of will.
It is for you to choose.
--
It is man (the human being) Who calls all kinds of feelings
"love": all the desires, attractions, vital exchanges, sexual relations, attachments, even friendships, and many other things
--
themselves whether human beings, Who are so small and limited,
could see things as they really are; and in the hope of understanding better, they have sought for a diviner vision, a global and true
vision - with the result of Yoga. And those Who have succeeded
in their endeavour have found that when one is united with the
--
Parents Who are primarily interested in spiritual realisation
usually do not ask their children to come back to them.
--
Certainly there ought to be less. But for that, the children Who
study here must make an effort to grow in consciousness (a thing
--
What is the difference between persons Who have
developed their consciousness and those Who have not?
Those Who have done it and done it well become conscious; the
others remain half conscious like the vast majority of human
--
Sri Aurobindo spent his Whole life working to free men from
the bondage of religions. Do you want to contradict his work
--
Up to now, all those Who have gone have done so without
asking for permission, because they sensed that it would not be
--
to their own means. The Divine has sent down His Consciousness to give them light. All Who are able to do so should profit
by it.
--
down on earth to work in all Who are ready to receive it.
Blessings.
--
this new race is already at work on earth to give light to all Who
are capable of receiving it and heeding it.
--
can most help the one Who has departed.
Blessings.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Those Who want to progress now have an exceptional chance,
because the transformation begins with the opening of the consciousness to the action of the new forces; thus individuals have
--
The divine help is assured to those Who set to work sincerely.
8 December 1971
--
Egos that are converted and Wholly consecrated to the
Divine become especially powerful and effective instruments.
--
steadfast sincerity, but for those Who have a strong will, an
ardent aspiration and an unshakable sincerity, it is well worth
--
( 1 ) Those Who live for themselves. They consider everything
in relation to themselves and act accordingly. The vast majority
--
(2) Those Who give their love to another human being and
live for him. As for the result, everything naturally depends on
--
(3) Those Who consecrate their life to the service of humanity through some activity done not for personal satisfaction
but truly to be useful to others without calculation and without
--
(4) Those Who give themselves entirely to the Divine and
live only for Him and through Him. This implies making the
--
When the vision of the Whole and the vision of all the details
are united in a single active consciousness, the creation will have
--
For those Who want always to progress, there are three major
ways of progressing:
--
When the Whole being, in all its parts and all its activities,
can say to the Divine in all sincerity:
--
the consciousness of the Whole.
19 March 1972
0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There are other great Personalities of the Divine Mother, but they were more difficult to bring down and have not stood out in front with so much prominence in the evolution of the earth-spirit. There are among them Presences indispensable for the supramental realization,most of all one Who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda1 which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter, the Ananda that holds the key of a wonderful divines Life and even now supports from its secrecies the work of all the other Powers of the universe.
Sri Aurobindo, The Mother
--
I knew you would ask me this question because it is indeed the most interesting thing in the Whole passageso my answer is ready, along with my answer to another question. But first let me read you this one.
You asked, What is this Personality and when will She come? Here is my answer (Mother reads):
--
But the vibrations of divine Bliss and those of pleasure cannot cohabit in the same vital and physical house. We must therefore TOTALLY renounce all feelings of pleasure to be ready to receive the divine Ananda. But rare are those Who can renounce pleasure without thereby renouncing all active participation in life or sinking into a stern asceticism. And among those Who realize that the transformation is to be wrought in active life, some pretend that pleasure is a form of Ananda gone more or less astray and legitimize their search for self-satisfaction, thereby creating a virtually insuperable obstacle to their own transformation.
Now, if there is anything else you wish to ask me Anyone may ask, anyoneanyone Who has something to saynot just the students.
Mother, even if we have not previously succeeded, cant we still try?
--
I dont say it was ineffectual, but between the result obtained and the result hoped for, there was a considerable difference. But as I said, you Who are all so near, so steeped in this atmosphere Who among you noticed anything?You simply went on with your little lives as usual.
I think it was in 1946, Mother, because you told us so many things at that time.
--
Oh! But you see, from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. From an external standpoint you could say that there are people in the world Who are far superior to you (and I would not disagree!), but from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. There are It can be said that without a doubt the majority of young people here have come because it was promised them that they would be present at the Hour of Realization but they just dont remember it! (Mother laughs) I have already said several times that when you come down on earth, you fall on your head, which leaves you a little dazed! (laughter) Its a pity, but after all, you dont have to remain dazed all your lives, do you? You should go deep within yourselves and there find the immortal consciousness then you can see very well, you can very clearly remember the circumstances in which you you aspired to be here for the Hour of the Works realization.
But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you dont exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly Who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here? You just let yourselves drift. You even complain when things arent easy enough! You just take things as they come. And sometimes, should an aspiration arise in you and you encounter some difficulty in yourself, you say, Oh, Mother is there! Shell take care of it for me! And you think about something else.
Mother, previously things were very strict in the Ashram, but not now. Why?
--
But as I said, bit by bit things changed. However, this had one advantage: we were too much outside of life. So there were a number of problems which had never arisen but which would have suddenly surged up the moment we wanted a complete manifestation. We took on all these problems a little prematurely, but it gave us the opportunity to solve them. In this way we learned many things and surmounted many difficulties, only it complicated things considerably. And in the present situation, given such a large number of elements Who havent even the slightest idea why theyre here (!) well, it demands a far greater effort on the disciples part than before.
Before, when there were we started with 35 or 36 people but even when it got up to 150, even with 150it was as if they were all nestled in a cocoon in my consciousness: they were so near to me that I could constantly guide ALL their inner or outer movements. Day and night, at each moment, everything was totally under my control. And naturally, I think they made a great deal of progress at that time: it is a fact that I was CONSTANTLY doing the sadhana2 for them. But then, with this baby boom The sadhana cant be done for little sprouts Who are 3 or 4 or 5 years old! Its out of the question. The only thing I can do is wrap them in the Consciousness and try to see that they grow up in the best of all possible conditions. However, the one advantage to all this is that instead of there being such a COMPLETE and PASSIVE dependence on the disciples part, each one has to make his own little effort. Truly, thats excellent.
I dont know to Whom I was mentioning this today (I think it was for a Birthday3 No, I dont know now. It was to someone Who told me he was 18 years old. I said that between the ages of 18 and 20, I had attained a constant and conscious union with the Divine Presence and that I had done this ALL ALONE, without ANYONES help, not even books. When a little later I chanced upon Vivekanandas Raja Yoga, it really seemed so wonderful to me that someone could explain something to me! And it helped me realize in only a few months what would have otherwise taken years.
I met a man (I was perhaps 20 or 21 at the time), an Indian Who had come to Europe and Who told me of the Gita. There was a French translation of it (a rather poor one, I must say) which he advised me to read, and then he gave me the key (HIS key, it was his key). He said, Read the Gita (this translation of the Gita which really wasnt worth much but it was the only one available at the timein those days I wouldnt have understood anything in other languages; and besides, the English translations were just as bad and well, Sri Aurobindo hadnt done his yet!). He said, Read the Gita knowing that Krishna is the symbol of the immanent God, the God within. That was all. Read it with THAT knowledgewith the knowledge that Krishna represents the immanent God, the God within you. Well, within a month, the Whole thing was done!
So some of you people have been here since the time you were toddlerseverything has been explained to you, the Whole thing has been served to you on a silver platter (not only with words, but through psychic aid and in every possible way), you have been put on the path of this inner discovery and then you just go on drifting along: When it comes, it will come.If you even spare it that much thought!
So thats how it is.
--
Now Who was it that asked me what you should do?
(The child:) Me!
--
For Her, this body is but one instrument among so many others in an eternity of ages to come, and for Her its only importance is that attributed to it by the Earth and mankind the extent to which it can be used as a channel to further Her manifestation. If I find myself surrounded by people Who are incapable of receiving Her, then for Her, I am quite useless.
It is very clear. So it is not I Who can make Her stay. And I certainly cannot ask Her to stay for egotistical reasons. Moreover, all these Aspects, all these Personalities manifest constantly but they never manifest for personal reason. Not one of them has ever thought of helping my bodybesides, I dont ask them to because that is not their purpose. But it is more than obvious that if the people around me were receptive, She could permanently manifest since they could receive Herand this would help my body enormously because all these vibrations would run through it. But She never gets even a chance to manifestnot a single one. She only meets people Who dont even feel Her when Shes there! They dont even notice Her, theyre not even aware of her presence. So how can She manifest in these conditions? Im not going to ask Her, Please come and change my body. We dont have that kind of relationship! Furthermore, the body itself wouldnt agree. It never thinks of itself, it never pays attention to itself, and besides, it is only through the work that it can be transformed.
Yes, certainly had there been any receptivity when She came down and had She been able to manifest with the power with which She came But I can tell you one thing: even before Her coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time I didnt seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone Who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan5 came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, But my god, is it you? I said, Of course!
Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went awaybecause on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.
--
W.W. Pearson, a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, Who had come from Tagore's Ashram in 1923; Mother had met him with Tagore in 1916 in Japan.
***
0 1955-03-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mahakali: the eternal Mother in her warrior aspect, She Who severs the heads of the demons.
Such was our old, meaningless name (except for its Germanic root: 'hard bear') until a certain March 3, 1957, when Mother named us Sat-prem ('the one Who loves truly').
***
0 1955-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am not now going to renounce Sri Aurobindos Yoga, Mother, for my Whole life is based upon it, but I believe I should employ other meanswhich is why I am writing you this letter.
By continuing this daily little ant-like struggle and by having to confront the same desires, the same distractions every day, it seems to me I am wasting my energy in vain. Sri Aurobindos Yoga, which is meant to include life, is so difficult that one should come to it only after having already established the solid base of a concrete divine realization. That is why I want to ask you if I should not withdraw for a certain time, to Almora,3 for example, to Brewsters place,4 to live in solitude, silence, meditation, far away from people, work and temptations, until a beginning of Light and Realization is concretized in me. Once this solid base is acquired, it would be easier for me to resume my work and the struggle here for the true transformation of the outer being. But to want to transform this outer being without having fully illumined the inner being seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse, or at least condemning myself to a pitiless and endless battle in which the best of my forces are fruitlessly consumed.
0 1955-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Your case is not unique; there are others (and among the best and the most faithful) Who are likewise a veritable battlefield for the forces opposing the advent of the truth. They feel powerless in this battle, sorrowful witnesses, victims without the strength to fight, for this is taking place in that part of the physical consciousness where the supramental forces are not yet fully active, although I am confident they soon will be. Meanwhile, the only remedy is to endure, to go through this suffering and to await patiently the hour of liberation.
While reading your prayer, I too prayed that it be heard.
0 1955-09-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have friends in Bangalore Whom I would like to join for two or three weeks, perhaps more, perhaps less, however long it may take to confront this vital with its own freedom. I need a vital activity, to move, to sail, for example, to have friends etc. The need I am feeling is exactly that which I sought to satisfy in the past through my long boat journeys along the coast of Brittany. It is a kind of thirst for space and movement.
Otherwise, Mother, there is this block before me that is obscuring all the rest and taking away my taste for everything. I would like to leave, Mother, but not in revolt; may it be an experience to go through that receives your approval. I would not like to be cut off from you by your displeasure or your condemnation, for this would seem to me terrible and leave me no other recourse but to plunge into the worst excesses in order to forget.
0 1956-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I understand now that as long as my Whole being has not ACCEPTED that it must finish its life here, there is no way out nor any recovery possible. Through my mental force alone, this acceptance is impossible; I have been turning infernally in circles these past two months, and the mind is in league with the vital. Therefore, a force greater than mine must help me accept that my way is here. I need you, Mother, for without you I am lost. I need you to tell me that the Truth of my being is indeed here and that I am truly ready to follow this path. Mother, I beseech you, help me to see the truth of my being, give me some sign that my way is here and not elsewhere. I beg of you, Mother, help me to know.
I also had a very clear sensation that you were abandoning me, that you had no further interest in me and I could just as well do as I pleased. Perhaps you cannot forgive some of my inner rebellions which have been so very violent? Am I totally guilty? Is it true that you are abandoning me?
0 1956-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Therefore, Sweet Mother, I come to ask a great grace of you, from the depths of my heart: take my freedom into your hands. Prevent me from falling back, far away from you. I place this freedom in your hands. Keep me safe, Mother, protect me. Grant me the grace of watching over me and of taking me in your hands completely, like a child Whose steps are unsure. I no longer want this Freedom. It is you I want, the Truth of my being. Mother, as a grace, I implore you to free me from my freedom to choose wrongly.
I am your child and I love you.
--
A friend of Satprem's Who died insane in a Japanese hospital in India
***
0 1956-05-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Those Who are ready within, Who are open and in touch with the higher forces, those Who have had a more or less direct personal contact with the Supramental Light and Consciousness, are capable of feeling the difference in the earth atmosphere.
But for this only like can know like. Only the Supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive the Supramental acting in the earth atmosphere. Those Who, for whatever reason, have developed this perception can see it. But those Who are not even remotely conscious of their inner beings, Who would be quite at a loss to say what their souls look like, are certainly not ready to perceive the difference in the earth atmosphere. They still have quite a way to go for that. Because, for those Whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centered in the outer beingmental, vital and physicalthings need to have an absurd or unexpected appearance to be noticeable. And then they call it a miracle.
But we do not call a miracle the constant miracle of the forces that intervene to change circumstances and human natures and which have very far-reaching consequences, for we see only the appearance, and this appearance seems quite natural. But in truth, if you were to reflect upon the least thing that happens, you would be forced to acknowledge that it is miraculous.
--
I knew some people Who came here a long time ago, something like (Oh, I dont recall anymore, but quite a long time ago!), certainly more than twenty years ago; the first time someone died in the Ashram, they expressed a considerable dissatisfaction: But I came here because I thought this yoga would make me immortal! If you can still die, then why did I come here?
Well, its the same thing. People take the train to come herethere were about a hundred and fifty more people than usual1simply because they want to benefit. But this may be exactly why they have not benefited from it! Because This [the supramental consciousness] has not come to make people benefit in any way whatsoever!
--
Who are you trying to fool? The Divine? That is hardly possible.
Its the same with those Who ask for an interview. I tell them, Look, you have come in large numbers, and if each one asks me for an interview, how could I possibly find enough minutes in so few days to see everyone? While youre here, I wouldnt have even a single minute. Then they retort, Oh, I have taken so MUCH trouble, I have come from so FAR away, I have come from way in the North, I have travelled for so many hoursand I have no right to an interview? I reply, Im sorry, but you are not the only one in that situation.
And thats how it isswapping, bargaining. We are not a commercial enterprise, we have made it clear that we are not doing business.
--
But its not man Who is going to convert himself into a superman!
No?
--
Look. If all of you Who have heard of this, not once but perhaps hundreds of times, Who have spoken of it yourselves, thought about it, hoped for it, wanted it (there are some people Who have come here only for this, to receive the Supramental Force and to be transformed into supermen, this has been their goal) then how is it that you were ALL such strangers to this Force that when it came, you did not even feel it?!
Can you solve that problem for me? If you find the solution to this problem, you will have the solution to the difficulty.
I am not speaking of people from outside Who have never thought about it, Who have never felt concerned and Who do not even know that there may be something like the Supermind to receive, in fact. I am speaking of people Who have built their lives upon this aspiration (and I dont doubt their sincerity for a minute), Who have workedsome of them for thirty years, some for thirty-five, others somewhat lessall the while saying, When the supermind comes When the supermind comes That was their refrain: When the supermind comes Consequently, they were really in the best possible frame of mind, one could not have dreamt of a better predisposition. How is it, then, that their inner preparation was so lets just say incomplete, that they did not feel the Vibration immediately, as soon as it came, through a shock of identity?
Individually, each ones goal was to make himself ready, to enter into a more or less intimate individual relationship with this Force, so as to help the process; or else, if he could not help, at least be ready to recognize and be open to the Force when it would manifest. Then instead of being an alien element in a world in which your OWN inner capacity remains unmanifest, you suddenly become THAT, you enter directly, fully, into the very atmosphere: the Force is there, all around you, permeating you.
--
Well, in any event, that was the case for those Who had a little inner contact; they recognized it, they felt it, and they said, Ah, there it is! It has come! But how is it that so many hundreds of peoplenot to mention the handful of those Who really wanted only that, thought only of that, had staked their Whole lives on thathow is it that they felt nothing? What can this mean?
It is well known that only like knows like. It is an obvious fact.
--
Thats how the universal movement works (I read this to you a few days ago): through their inner effort and inner progress, certain individuals, Who are the pioneers, the forerunners, enter into communication with the new Force which is to manifest, and they receive it in themselves. And because a number of calls like this surge forth, the thing becomes possible, and the era, the time, the moment for the manifestation comes. This is how it happened and the Manifestation took place.
But then, all those Who were ready should have recognized it.
I hasten to tell you that some did recognize it, but they were so few But as for those Who ask these questions, Who even took the trouble to come here, Who took the train to gulp this down as you gulp down a soft drink, how can they possibly feel anything whatsoever if they have not prepared themselves at all? Yet they are already speaking of profiting: We want to benefit from it
After all, if they have even a tiny bit of sincerity (not too much, its tiring!), a tiny bit of sincerity, it is quite possible (I am joking), it is quite possible that they might get a few good kicks to make them go faster! It is possible. In fact, I think thats what will happen.
--
But I have just explained the Whole thing to you! (Mother laughs) Its incredible!
What I call a descent is this: first of all, the consciousness climbs in ascent, then you catch the Thing up above and redescend with it. This is an INDIVIDUAL event.
--
But now, you may reply to those people Who are asking these insidious questions that the best way to receive anything whatsoever is not to pull, but to give. If they want to give themselves to the new life, well, the new life will enter into them.
But if they want to pull the new life into themselves, they will close the door with their egoism. Thats all.
0 1956-07-29, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
O Thou Who art always therepresent in all I do, all I amnot for repose do I aspire, but for THY INTEGRAL VICTORY.
***
0 1956-08-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In fact, following the 'Supramental Manifestation' of February 29, 1956, all of Mother's physical difficulties increased, as though all the obscurities in the physical consciousness were surging forth beneath the pressure of the new light. The same observation applies to the disciples Who were around Mother and undoubtedly to the world as a Whole. A strange 'mysterious acceleration' was beginning to take hold of the world.
***
0 1956-09-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My friends keep telling me that I am not ready and that, like R,1 Whom they knew, I should go and spend some time in society. They say that my idea of going to the Himalayas is absurd, and they advise me to return to Brazil for a few years to stay with W W is an elderly American millionaire the only good rich man I know Who wanted to make me an heir, as it were, to his financial affairs and Who treats me rather like a son. He was quite disappointed when I came back to India. My friends tell me that if I have to go through a period in the outside world, the best way to do it is to remain near someone Who is fond of me, while at the same time ensuring a material independence for the future.
These questions of money do not interest me. In fact, nothing interests me except this something I feel within me. The only question for me is to know whether I am truly ready for the Yoga, or if my failings are not the sign of some immaturity. Mother, you alone can tell me what is right.
--
I KNOW that ultimately my place is near you, but is that my place at present, after all these failings? Spontaneously, it is you I want, you alone Who represent the light and all that is real in this world; I can love no one but you nor be interested in anything but this thing within me, but will it not all begin again once I have returned to the Ashram? You alone know the stage I am at, what is good for me, what is possible.
Sweet Mother, may I still ask for your Love, your help? For without your help, nothing is possible, and without your love, nothing has any meaning.
--
A former disciple Who left the Ashram, and subsequently committed suicide.
***
0 1956-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The otheridentity with the supreme Grace, which obliterates and abolishes all errors committed in the action by Whomsoever and whatsoever and which annuls all the consequences of these errors.
And the moment I perceived this, I saw that my third attitude in action, which is the will for progress for the Whole earth as well as for each particular individual, was not the height of my being.
***
--
No, it is exactly the opposite of what you are saying. It is not that the Divine in his divinity is opposed to his own manifested selfHe is very far beyond, beyond the necessity for Grace; He perceives his unique and exclusive responsibility, and that it is He and He alone Who must change in His Manifestation so that all may change.
***
0 1956-10-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, I implore you, in the name of whatever led me to you in the first place, give me the strength to do WHAT HAS TO BE DONE. You Who see and Who can, decide for me. You are my Mother. Whatever my shortcomings, my difficulties, I feel I am so deeply your child.
Signed: Bernard
--
So far, your Whole life has revolved around yourself; all you have done, even the apparently most disinterested or least egoistic act, has been done with a view to your own personal growth or illumination. It is time to live for something other than yourself, something other than your own individuality.
Open a new chapter in your existence. Live, no longer for your own realization or the realization of your ideal, however exalted it may be, but to serve an eternal work that transcends your individuality on all sides.
0 1956-12-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont see a thing, nothing. Oh Mother, I turn towards you in this void that is stifling me. Hear my prayer. Tell me what I must do. Give me a sign. Mother, you are my sole recourse, for Who else would show me the path to be taken, Who else but you would love me? Or is my fate to go off into the night?
Forgive me, Mother, for loving you so poorly, for giving myself so badly. Mother, you are my only hope, all the rest in me is utter despair.
0 1957-01-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Could you tell me, as a favor, what this particular thing is in me which may be useful to you and serve you? If I could only know what my real work is in this world All the conflicting impulses in me stem from my being like an unemployed force, like a being Whose place has not yet been determined.
What do you see in me, Mother? Is it through writing that I shall achieve what is to be achievedor does all this still belong to a nether world? But if so, then of what use am I? If I were good at something, it would give me some air to breathe.
0 1957-07-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It went something like this: somewhere, in the center of this enormous edifice, there was a room reservedas it seemed in the story for a mother and her daughter. The mother was a lady, an elderly lady, a very influential matron Who had a great deal of authority and her own views concerning the entire organization. Her daughter seemed to have a power of movement and activity enabling her to be everywhere at once while at the same time remaining in her room, which was well, a bit more than a roomit was a kind of apartment which, above all, had the characteristic of being very central. But she was constantly arguing with her mother. The mother wanted to keep things just as they were, with their usual rhythm, which precisely meant the habit of tearing down one thing to rebuild another, then again tearing down that to build still another, thus giving the building an appearance of frightful confusion. But the daughter did not like this, and she had another plan. Most of all, she wanted to bring something completely new into the organization: a kind of super-organization that would render all this confusion unnecessary. Finally, as it was impossible for them to reach an understanding, the daughter left the room to go on a kind of general inspection She went out, looked everything over, and then wanted to return to her room to decide upon some final measures. But this is where something rather peculiar began happening.
She clearly remembered where her room was, but each time she set out to go there, either the staircase disappeared or things were so changed that she could no longer find her way! So she went here and there, up and down, searched, went in and out but it was impossible to find the way to her room! Since all of this assumed a physical appearanceas I said, a very familiar and very common appearance, as is always the case in these symbolic visions there was somewhere (how shall I put it?) the hotels administrative office and a woman Who seemed to be the manager, Who had all the keys and Who knew where everyone was staying. So the daughter went to this person and asked her, Could you show me the way to my room?But of course! Easily! Everyone around the manager looked at her as if to say, How can you say that? However, she got up, and with authority asked for a key the key to the daughters roomsaying, I shall take you there. And off she went along all kinds of paths, but all so complicated, so bizarre! The daughter was following along behind her very attentively, you see, so as not to lose sight of her. But just as they should have come to the place where the daughters room was supposed to be, suddenly the manageress (let us call her the manageress), both the manageress and her key vanished! And the sense of this vanishing was so acute that at the same time, everything vanished!
So to help you understand this enigma, let me tell you that the mother is physical Nature as she is, and the daughter is the new creation. The manageress is the worlds organizing mental consciousness as Nature has developed it thus far, that is, the most advanced organizing sense to have manifested in the present state of material Nature. This is the key to the vision.
--
This means that before hoping to realize such a gnostic collectivity, each one must first of all become (or at least start to become) a gnostic being. It is obvious that the individual work must take the lead and the collective work follow; but the fact remains that spontaneously, without any arbitrary intervention of will the individual progress IS restrained or CHECKED, as It were, by the collective state. Between the collectivity and the individual, there exists an interdependence from which one cannot be totally free, even if one tries. And even he Who might try, in his yoga, to free himself totally from the human and terrestrial state of consciousness, would be at least subconsciously bound by the state of the Whole, which impedes and PULLS BACKWARDS. One can attempt to go much faster, one can attempt to let all the weight of attachments and responsibilities fall off, but in spite of everything, the realization of even the most advanced or the leader in the march of evolution is dependent upon the realization of the Whole, dependent upon the state in which the terrestrial collectivity happens to be. And this PULLS backwards to such an extent that sometimes one has to wait centuries for the earth to be ready before being able to realize what is to be realized.
This is why Sri Aurobindo has also written somewhere else that a double movement is necessary: the effort for individual progress and realization must be combined with the effort of trying to uplift the Whole so as to enable it to make a progress indispensable for the greater progress of the individual: a mass progress, if you will, that allows the individual to take a further step forward.
And now you understand why I had thought it would be useful to have a few meditations in common, to work at creating a common atmosphere a bit more organized than my big hotel of last night!
0 1957-10-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But with the supramental manifestation, something new has taken place in the body: it feels it is its own master, autonomous, with its two feet solidly on the ground, as it were. This gives a physical impression of the Whole being suddenly drawing itself up, with its head lifted high I am my own master.
We live perennially with a burden on our shoulders, something that bows our heads down, and we feel pulled, led by all kinds of external forces, we dont know by Whom or what, nor where tothis is what men call Fate, Destiny. When you do yoga, one of the first experiences the experience of the kundalini, as it is called here in Indiais precisely one in which the consciousness rises, breaks through this hard lid, here, at the crown of the head, and at last you emerge into the Light. Then you see, you know, you decide and you realizedifficulties may still remain, but truly speaking one is above them. Well, as a result of the supramental manifestation, it is THIS experience that came into the body. The body straightened its head up and felt its freedom, its independence.
During the flu epidemic, for example, I spent every day in the midst of people Who were germ carriers. And one day, I clearly felt that the body had decided not to catch this flu. It asserted its autonomy. You see, it was not a question of the higher Will deciding, no. It didnt take place in the highest consciousness: the body itself decided. When you are way above in your consciousness, you see things, you know things; but in actual fact, once you descend again into matter, it is like water running through sand. In this respect, things have changed, the body has a DIRECT power, independent of any outer intervention. Even though it is barely visible, I consider this to be a very important result.
And this new vibration in the body has allowed me to understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration that sets disorders righteven disorders that existed prior to the supramental manifestation.
0 1957-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But do not imagine that those Who are tested are on one side and those Who test on the other; depending upon the times and circumstances, we are both examiners and examined, and it may even happen that simultaneously, at the very same moment, we are the examined and the examiner. And whatever benefits we derive depend, in both quality and quantity, upon the intensity of our aspiration and the alertness of our consciousness.
To conclude, a final recommendation: never pose as an examiner. For while it is good to remember constantly that perhaps one is passing a very important test, it is, on the other hand, extremely dangerous to imagine oneself entrusted with applying tests to others, for that is an open door to the most absurd and harmful vanities. It is not an ignorant human will that decides these things but the Supreme Wisdom.
0 1957-12-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There is a Whole gradation of planes of consciousness, from the physical consciousness to my radiant consciousness at the very highest level, that which knows the Will of the Supreme. I keep all these planes of consciousness in front of me, working simultaneously, coordinatedly, and I am acting on each plane, gathering the information proper to each plane, so as to have the integral truth of things. Thus, when I have a decision to make in regard to one of you, I plug into you directly from that level of the supreme consciousness which sees the deep truth of your being. But at the same time, my decision is shaped, as it were, by the information given to me by the other planes of consciousness and particularly by the physical consciousness, which acts as a recorder.
This physical consciousness records all it sees, all your reactions, your thoughts, all the factswithout preference, without prejudice, without personal will. Nothing escapes it. Its work is almost mechanical. Therefore I know what to tell or to ask you according to the integral truth of your being and its present possibilities. Ordinarily, in the normal man, the physical consciousness does not see things as they are, for three reasons: because of ignorance, because of preference, and because of an egoistic will. You color what you see, eliminate what displeases you. In short, you see only what you desire to see.
0 1958-01-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
During one of our classes (October 30, 1957), I spoke of the limitless abundance of Nature, this tireless Creatrice Who takes the multitude of forms, mixes them together, separates them again and reforms them, again undoes them, again destroys them, in order to move on to ever new combinations. As I said, it is a huge cauldron. Things get churned up in it and somehow something emerges; if its defective, it is thrown back in and something else is taken out One form, two forms or a hundred forms make no difference to her, there are thousands upon thousands of formsand one year, a hundred years, a thousand years, millions of years, what difference does it make? Eternity lies before her! She quite obviously enjoys herself and is in no hurry. If you speak to her of pressing on or of rushing through some part of her work or other, her reply is always the same: But what for? Why? Arent you enjoying it?
The evening I told you these things, I totally identified myself with Nature and I entered into her play. And this movement of identification brought forth a response, a new kind of intimacy between Nature and myself, a long movement of drawing ever nearer which culminated in an experience that came on November 8.
--
And suddenly, as if resounding from every corner of the earth, I heard these great notes which are sometimes heard in the subtle physicalra ther like those of Beethovens Concerto in Dwhich come at moments of great progress, as though fifty orchestras were bursting forth all at once without a single discordant note, to sound the joy of this new communion of Nature and Spirit, the meeting of old friends Who, after a long separation, find each other once more.
Then came these words: O Nature, Material Mother, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate, and there is no limit to the splendor of this collaboration.
0 1958-02-03a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have received a long letter from Swami,1 Who in essence says that I should be able to realize what I have to realize right here with you, but he does not refuse to take me with him should I persist in my intention.
Mother, I am placing all this in your hands, sincerely.
--
A Sannyasi, or wandering monk, Whom Satprem would join a few weeks later in Ceylon, on February 27, and Who would initiate him as a Sannyasi. Unfortunately, almost all the correspondence from this period has been lost.
***
0 1958-02-03b - The Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This immense ship had just arrived at the shore of the supramental world, and a first batch of people destined to become the future inhabitants of the supramental world were about to disembark. Everything was arranged for this first landing. A certain number of very tall beings were posted on the wharf. They were not human beings and never before had they been men. Nor were they permanent inhabitants of the supramental world. They had been delegated from above and posted there to control and supervise the landing. I was in charge of all this since the beginning and throughout. I myself had prepared all the groups. I was standing on the bridge of the ship, calling the groups forward one by one and having them disembark on the shore. The tall beings posted there seemed to be reviewing those Who were disembarking, allowing those Who were ready to go ashore and sending back those Who were not and Who had to continue their training aboard the ship. While standing there watching everyone, that part of my consciousness coming from here became extremely interested: it wanted to see, to identify all the people, to see how they had changed and to find out Who had been taken immediately as well as those Who had to remain and continue their training. After awhile, as I was observing, I began to feel pulled backwards and that my body was being awakened by a consciousness or a person from here1and in my consciousness, I protested: No, no, not yet! Not yet! I want to see Whos there! I was watching all this and noting it with intense interest It went on like that until, suddenly, the clock here began striking three, which violently jerked me back. There was the sensation of a sudden fall into my body. I came back with a shock, but since I had been called back very suddenly, all my memory was still intact. I remained quiet and still until I could bring back the Whole experience and preserve it.
The nature of objects on this ship was not that which we know upon earth; for example, the clothes were not made of cloth, and this thing that resembled cloth was not manufacturedit was a part of the body, made of the same substance that took on different forms. It had a kind of plasticity. When a change had to be made, it was done not by artificial and outer means but by an inner working, by a working of the consciousness that gave the substance its form or appearance. Life created its own forms. There was ONE SINGLE substance in all things; it changed the nature of its vibration according to the needs or uses.
Those Who were sent back for more training were not of a uniform color; their bodies seemed to have patches of a grayish opacity, a substance resembling the earth substance. They were dull, as though they had not been Wholly permeated by the light or Wholly transformed. They were not like this all over, but in places.
The tall beings on the shore were not of the same color, at least they did not have this orange tint; they were paler, more transparent. Except for a part of their bodies, only the outline of their forms could be seen. They were very tall, they did not seem to have a skeletal structure, and they could take on any form according to their needs. Only from their waists to their feet did they have a permanent density, which was not felt in the rest of their body. Their color was much more pallid and contained very little red, it verged rather on gold or even white. The parts of whitish light were translucid; they were not absolutely transparent, but less dense, more subtle than the orange substance.
--
As for the people I saw aboard ship, I recognized them all. Some were here in the Ashram, some came from elsewhere, but I knew them as well. I saw everyone, but as I realized that I would not remember everyone when I came back, I decided not to give any names. Besides, it is unnecessary. Three or four faces were very clearly visible, and when I saw them, I understood the feeling that I have had here, on earth, while looking into their eyes: there was such an extraordinary joy On the Whole, the people were young; there were very few children, and their ages were around fourteen or fifteen, but certainly not below ten or twelve (I did not stay long enough to see all the details). There were no very old people, with the exception of a few. Most of the people Who had gone ashore were of a middle ageagain, except for a few. Several times before this experience, certain individual cases had already been examined at a place where people capable of being supramentalized are examined; I had then had a few surprises which I had noted I even told some people. But those Whom I disembarked today I saw very distinctly. They were of a middle age, neither young children nor elderly people, with only a few rare exceptions, and this quite corresponded to what I expected. I decided not to say anything, not to give any names. As I did not stay until the end, it would be impossible for me to draw an exact picture, for it was neither absolutely clear nor complete. I do not want to say things to some and not say them to others.
What I can say is that the criterion or the judgment was based EXCLUSIVELY on the substance constituting the peoplewhe ther they belonged completely to the supramental world or not, whether they were made of this very special substance. The criterion adopted was neither moral nor psychological. It is likely that their bodily substance was the result of an inner law or an inner movement which, at that time, was not in question. At least it is quite clear that the values are different.
When I came back, along with the memory of the experience, I knew that the supramental world was permanent, that my presence there is permanent, and that only a missing link is needed to allow the consciousness and the substance to connectand it is this link that is being built. At that time, my impression (an impression which remained rather long, almost the Whole day) was of an extreme relativityno, not exactly that, but an impression that the relationship between this world and the other completely changes the criterion by which things are to be evaluated or judged. This criterion had nothing mental about it, and it gave the strange inner feeling that so many things we consider good or bad are not really so. It was very clear that everything depended upon the capacity of things and upon their ability to express the supramental world or be in relationship with it. It was so completely different, at times even so opposite to our ordinary way of looking at things! I recall one little thing that we usually consider bad actually how funny it was to see that it is something excellent! And other things that we consider important were really quite unimportant there! Whether it was like this or like that made no difference. What is very obvious is that our appreciation of what is divine or not divine is incorrect. I even laughed at certain things Our usual feeling about what is anti-divine seems artificial, based upon something untrue, unliving (besides, what we call life here appeared lifeless in comparison with that world); in any event, this feeling should be based upon our relationship between the two worlds and according to whether things make this relationship easier or more difficult. This would thus completely change our evaluation of what brings us nearer to the Divine or what takes us away from Him. With people, too, I saw that what helps them or prevents them from becoming supramental is very different from what our ordinary moral notions imagine. I felt just how ridiculous we are.
(Then Mother speaks to the children)
--
A true, sincere, spontaneous life, as in the supramental world, is a springing forth of things through the fact of conscious will, a power over substance that shapes this substance according to what we decide it should be. And he Who has this power and this knowledge can obtain whatever he wants, whereas he Who does not has no artificial means of getting what he desires.
In ordinary life, EVERYTHING is artificial. Depending upon the chance of your birth or circumstances, you have a more or less high position or a more or less comfortable life, not because it is the spontaneous, natural and sincere expression of your way of being and of your inner need, but because the fortuity of lifes circumstances has placed you in contact with these things. An absolutely worthless man may be in a very high position, and a man Who might have marvelous capacities of creation and organization may find himself toiling in a quite limited and inferior position, whereas he would be a Wholly useful individual if the world were sincere.
It is this artificiality, this insincerity, this complete lack of truth that appeared so shocking to me that one wonders how, in a world as false as this one, we can arrive at any truthful evaluation of things.
--
When I invited you on a voyage into the unknown, a voyage of adventure,2 I did not know just how true were my words! And I can promise those Who are ready to embark upon this adventure that they will make some very astonishing discoveries.
Indeed, one of the people near Mother had pulled Her out of the experience.
0 1958-03-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As for me, I am totally out of my element in this new life, as though I were uprooted from myself. I am living in the temple, in the midst of pujas,1 with white ashes on my forehead, barefoot dressed like a Hindu, sleeping on cement at night, eating impossible curries, with some good sunburns to complete the cooking. And there I am, clinging to you, for if you were not there I would collapse, so absurd would it all be. You are the only realityhow many times have I repeated this to myself, like a litany! Apart from this, I am holding up quite well physically. But inside and outside, nothing is left but you. I need you, thats all. Mother, this world is so horrifyingly empty. I really feel that I would evaporate if you werent there. Well, no doubt I had to go through this experience Perhaps I will be able to extract some book from it that will be of use to you. We are like children Who need a lot of pictures in order to understand, and a few good kicks to realize our complete stupidity.
Swami must soon take to the road again, through Ceylon, towards March 20 or 25. So I shall go wandering with him until May; towards the beginning of May, he will return to India. I hope to have learned my lesson by then, and to have learned it well. Inwardly, I have understood that there is only you but its these problem children on the surface Who must be made to toe the line once and for all.
Sweet Mother, I am in a hurry to work for you. Will you still want me? Mother, I need you, I need you. I would like to ask you an absurd question: Do you think of me? I have only you, you alone in the world.
0 1958-04-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And at the same time, I saw that it is you Who is doing everything, you Who aspires in me, you Who wants the progress, and that all I myself am in this affair is a screen, a resisting obstacle. O Mother, break this screen that I may be Wholly transparent before you, that your transforming force may purify all the secret recesses in my being, that nothing may remain but you and you alone. O Mother, may all my being be a living expression of your light, your truth.
Mother, from the depths of my being, I offer you a sole prayer: may I become your more and more perfect instrument, a sword of light in your hands. Oh, to get out of this ego that belittles everything, diminishes everything, to emerge from it! All is falsehood in it.
And I, Who understood nothing of love, am beginning to suspect Who Satprem is. Mother, your grace is infinite, it has accompanied me everywhere in my life.
We are still in Kataragama, and we shall only go up to northern Ceylon, to Jaffna, around the 15th, then return to India towards the beginning of May if the visa problems are settled. Only in India, at the temple of Rameswaram, can I receive the orange robe. I am living here as a sannyasi, but dressed in white, like a Hindu. It is a stark life, nothing more. I have seen however, that truth does not lie in starkness but in a change of consciousness. (Desire always finds a means to entrench itself in very small details and in very petty and stupid, though well-rooted, avidities.)
0 1958-05-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The difficulty is greater for Westerners than for Indians. Its as though their substance were steeped in falsehood. It also happens with Indians, of course, but generally the falsehood is much more in the vital than in the physicalbecause after all, the physical has been utilized by bodies belonging to enlightened beings. The European substance seems steeped in rebellion; in the Indian substance this rebelliousness is subdued by an influence of surrender. The other day, someone was telling me about some Europeans with Whom he corresponds, and I said, But tell them to read, to learn, to follow The Synthesis of Yoga!it leads you straight to the path. Whereupon he replied, Oh, but they say its full of talk on surrender, surrender, always surrender and they want none of it.
They want none of it! Even if the mind accepts, the body and the vital refuse. And when the body refuses, it refuses with the stubbornness of a stone.
--
No. From the minute it is conscious, it is conscious of its own falsehood! It is conscious of this law, of that law, of this third law that fourth law, this tenth laweverything is a law. We are subject to physical laws: this will produce such and such a result if you do that, this will happen, etc. Oh! It reeks! I know it well. I know it very well. These laws reek of falsehood. In the body, we have no faith in the divine Grace, none, none, none, none! Those Who have not undergone a tapasya2 as I have, say, Yes, all these inner moral things, feelings, psychology, all that is very good; we want the Divine and we are ready to But all the same, material facts are material facts, they have their concrete reality, after all an illness is an illness, food is food, and everything you do has a consequence, and when you are bah, bah, bah, bah, bah!
We must understand that this isnt trueit isnt true, its a falsehood, all this is sheer falsehood. It is NOT TRUE, it is not true!
--
When I had this experience, I understood that only a month ago I was still uttering mountain-sized imbecilities. And I laughed to the point of almost approving those Who say, But all the same, the Supreme does not decide the number of sugar cubes you put in your coffee! That would be to project your own way of being onto the Supreme. But this is an Himalayan imbecility! It is a stupidity, the minds pretentious stupidity projecting itself onto the divine life and imagining that the divine life conforms to its own projection.
The Supreme does not decide: He knows. The Supreme does not want: He sees. And it is so for each thousandth of a second, eternally. Thats all. And it is the only true condition.
--
I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my Whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but that, I have wanted nothing but that, I had no other interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. There were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people Who are in a hurry, people Who are impatient, are arrogant fools.
It is a hard path. I try to make it as comfortable as possible, but nevertheless, it is a hard path. And it is obvious that it cannot be otherwise. You are beaten and battered until you understand. Until you are in that state in which all bodies are your body. But at that point, you begin to laugh! You were upset by this, hurt by that, you suffered from this or that but now, how laughable it all seems! And not only the head, but the body too finds it laughable!
0 1958-05-11 - the ship that said OM, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Something quite curious took place during a recent meditation. I no longer recall when exactly, but it was at a time when there were many visitors, for the courtyard was full. After perhaps no more than a few minutes, I suddenly heard a distinct voice, coming from my right, say OM, like that. And then a second time, OM. What an impact it had upon me! I felt an emotion here (gesture towards the heart) as I have not felt for years and years and years. And all, all, all was filled with light, with forceit was absolutely marvelous. It was an invocation, and during the Whole meditation the Presence was resplendent.
I said to myself, Who could have done that? I was not sure if only I had heard it, so I asked. The reply was, But it was the ship leaving! There was actually a ship which had left during the night3that is in support of those Who said it was a ship. But for me, it was SOMEONE because I felt someone there and I thought, Oh! If someone, in the ardor of his soul, said that in this what I could call an atheistic silence. Because people here are so afraid of following tradition, of being the slaves of the old things, that they cast out anything closely or remotely resembling religion.
It was very strange, because my first reaction was one of bewilderment: how is it that someone I was really bewildered for a fraction, not even the fraction of a second. And then
0 1958-05-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have noticed that in at least ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it is an excuse people give to themselves. I have seen that practically, in the case of almost all the people Who write to me saying, I am being violently attacked by hostile forces, its an excuse they are giving. It means that certain things in their nature do not want to yield, so they put all the blame on the hostile forces.
As a matter of fact, my tendency is more and more towards something in which the role of these hostile forces will be reduced to that of an examinerwhich means that they are there to test the sincerity of your spiritual quest. These elements have a reality in their action and for the workthis is their great reality but when you go beyond a certain region, it all grows dim to such a degree that it is no longer so well defined, so distinct. In the occult world, or rather if you look at the world from the occult point of view, these hostile forces are very real, their action is very real, quite concrete, and their attitude towards the divine realization is positively hostile; but as soon as you go beyond this region and enter into the spiritual world where there is no longer anything but the Divine in all things, and where there is nothing undivine, then these hostile forces become part of the total play and can no longer be called hostile forces: it is only an attitude that they have adoptedor more precisely, it is only an attitude adopted by the Divine in his play.
0 1958-06-06 - Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As for the latest experience,1 I cant say for sure that no one has ever had it, because someone like Ramakrishna, individuals like that, could have had it. But I am not sure, for when I had this experience (not of the divine Presence, which I had already felt in the cells for a long time, but the experience that the Divine ALONE is acting in the body, that He has BECOME the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence) well, the Whole time it remained actively like that, it was absolutely impossible to have the LEAST disorder in the body, and not only in the body, but IN ALL THE SURROUNDING MATTER. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. There was a divine harmony in EVERYTHING (it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in the most trivial things), in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there CAN NO LONGER be illness it is impossible. There can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonize (probably in a progressive way) just as that was harmonized: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasmeverything obeyed, everything!
As it was the first experience, it started to fade slightly when I began having contact with people; but I really had the feeling that it was a first experience, new upon earth. For I have experienced an absolute identity of the will with the divine Will ever since 1910, it has never left me. It isnt that, its SOMETHING ELSE. It is MATTER BECOMING THE DIVINE. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth. It is difficult to say for sure, but Ramakrishna died of cancer, and now that I have had the experience, I know in an ABSOLUTE way that this is impossible. If he had decided to go because the Divine wanted him to go, it would have been an orderly departure, in total harmony and with a total will, whereas this illness is a means of disorder.
--
It is likely that the greatest resistance will be in the most conscious beings due to a lack of mental receptivity, due to the mind itself which wants things to continue (as Sri Aurobindo has written) according to its own mode of ignorance. So-called inert matter is much more easily responsive, much moreit does not resist. And I am convinced that among plants, for example, or among animals, the response will be much quicker than among men. It will be more difficult to act upon a very organized mind; beings Who live in an entirely crystallized, organized mental consciousness are as hard as stone! It resists. According to my experience, what is unconscious will certainly follow more easily. It was a delight to see the water from the tap, the mouthwash in the bottle, the glass, the spongeit all had such an air of joy and consent! There is much less ego, you see, it is not a conscious ego.
The ego becomes more and more conscious and resistant as the being develops. Very primitive, very simple beings, little children will respond first, because they dont have an organized ego. But these big people! People Who have worked on themselves, Who have mastered themselves, Who are organized, Who have an ego made of steel, it will be difficult for them.
Unless they go beyond all this and have enough spiritual knowledge to be able to make the ego surrender in which case the realization will naturally be much greaterit will be more difficult to accomplish, but the result will be far more complete.
--
This consciousness here is true in relation to this world as it is, but the other is something else entirely. An adjustment is needed for the two to touch, otherwise one jumps from one to the other. And that serves no purpose. A progressive passage has to be built between the two. This means that a Whole number of rungs of consciousness are missing. This consciousness here must consciously connect with that consciousness there, which means a multitude of stairs passing from one to the other. Then we will be able to rise up progressively, and the Whole will arise.
Its action will be somewhat similar to what is described in the Last Judgment, which is an entirely symbolic expression of something that makes us discern between what belongs to the world of falsehood which is destined to disappear and what belongs to this same world of ignorance and inertia but is transformable. One will go to one side and the other to the other side. All that is transformable will be permeated more and more with this new substance and this new consciousness to such an extent that it will rise towards it and serve as a link between the two but all that belongs incorrigibly to falsehood and ignorance will disappear. This was also prophesied in the Gita: among what we call the hostile or anti-divine forces, those capable of being transformed will be uplifted and go off towards the new consciousness, whereas all that is irrevocably in darkness or belongs to an evil will shall be destroyed and vanish from the Universe. And a Whole part of humanity that has responded to these forces rather too zealously will certainly vanish with them. And this is what was expressed in this concept of the Last Judgment.
May 1, 1958.
0 1958-07-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Something I have never said completely. On the one hand, there is the attitude of those in yesterday evenings film2: God is everything, God is everywhere, God is in he Who smites you (as Sri Aurobindo wroteGod made me good with a blow, shall I tell Him: O Mighty One, I forgive you your harm and cruelty but do not do it again!), an attitude which, if extended to its ultimate conclusion, accepts the world as it is: the world is the perfect expression of the divine Will. On the other hand, there is the attitude of progress and transformation. But for that, you must recognize that there are things in the world which are not as they should be.
In The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that this idea of good and bad, of pure and impure, is a notion needed for action; but the purists, such as Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and others, do not agree. They do not agree that it is indispensable for action. They simply say: your acceptance of action as a necessary thing is contrary to your perception of the Divine in all things.
--
I recall that once I tried to speak of this, but no one followed me, no one understood, so I did not insist. I left it open and never pursued it further, for they could not decipher anything or find any meaning in what I was saying. But now I could give a very simple answer: Let the Supreme do the work. It is He Who has to progress, not you!
Ramdas does not at all consider that the world as it is, is good.
No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. They are utterly familiar to me. It doesnt bother them. These are people Who live with a certain feeling, Who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they dont care at all if their formation they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vaguecontains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. They do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision; their feeling is absolutely clear, and thats enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bothered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true.
But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer existthey never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. They never went that far.
--
Ramdas: a yogi from Northwest India Who followed the path of love (bhakti). His Whole yoga consisted in repeating the name Ram. He founded the Anand-ashram in Kanhargad, Kerala. He was born in 1884 and died in 1963.
Bishnupriya, a Bengali film.
0 1958-07-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
You see, this is how it happened: theres this Ganesh2 We had a meditation (this was more than thirty years ago) in the room where Prosperity3 is now distributed. There were eight or ten of us, I believe. We used to make sentences with flowers; I arranged the flowers, and each one made a sentence with the different flowers I had put there. And one day when the subject of prosperity or wealth came up, I thought (they always say that Ganesh is the god of money, of fortune, of the worlds wealth), I thought, Isnt this Whole story of the god with an elephant trunk merely a lot of human imagination? Thereupon, we meditated. And Who should I see walk in and park himself in front of me but a living being, absolutely alive and luminous, with a trunk that long and smiling! So then, in my meditation, I said, Ah! So its true that you exist!Of course I exist! And you may ask me for whatever you wish, from a monetary standpoint, of course, and I will give it to you!
So I asked. And for about ten years, it poured in, like this (gesture of torrents). It was incredible. I would ask, and at the next Darshan, or a month or several days later, depending, there it was.
--
Once someone even asked Santa Claus! A young Muslim girl Who had a special liking for Father Christmas I dont know why, as it was not part of her religion! Without saying a word to me, she called on Santa Claus and told him, Mother doesnt believe in you; you should give Her a gift to prove to Her that you exist. You can give it to Her for Christmas. And it happened! She was quite proud.
But it only happened like that once. And as for Ganesh, that was the end of it. So then I asked Nature. It took her a long time to accept to collaborate. But as for the money, I shall have to ask her about it; because for me personally, it is still going on. I think, Hmm, wouldnt it be nice to have a wristwatch like that. And I get twenty of them! I say to myself, Well, if I had that and I get thirty of them! Things come in from every side, without my even uttering a word I dont even ask, they just come.
--
Health naturally depends upon the sadhana; but even that is not so sure: there are other factors. As for the second, the power over government, Sri Aurobindo looked at it, studied it, considered it very carefully, and finally he told me, There is only one way to have that power: it is TO BE the government. One can influence individuals, one can transmit the will to them, but their hands are tied. In a government, there is no one individual, nor even several Who is all-powerful and Who can decide things. One must be the government oneself and give it the desired orientation.
For the last, for money, he told me, I still dont know exactly what it depends on. Then one day I entered into trance with this idea in mind, and after a certain journey I came to a place like a subterranean grotto (which means that it is in the subconscient, or perhaps even in the inconscient) which was the source, the place and the power over money. I was about to enter into this grotto (a kind of inner cave) when I saw, coiled and upright, an immense serpent, like an all black python, formidable, as big as a seven-story house, Who said, You cannot pass!Why not? Let me pass!Myself, I would let you pass, but if I did, they would immediately destroy me. Who, then, is this they?They are the asuric4 powers Who rule over money. They have put me here to guard the entrance, precisely so that you may not enter.And what is it that would give one the power to enter? Then he told me something like this: I heard (that is, he himself had no special knowledge, but it was something he had heard from his masters, those Who ruled over him), I heard that he Who will have a total power over the human sexual impulses (not merely in himself, but a universal power that is, a power enabling him to control this everywhere, among all men) will have the right to enter. In other words, these forces would not be able to prevent him from entering.
A personal realization is very easy, it is nothing at all; a personal realization is one thing, but the power to control it among all men that is, to control or master such movements at will, everywhereis quite another. I dont believe that this condition has been fulfilled. If what the serpent said is true and if this is really what will vanquish these hostile forces that rule over money, well then, it has not been fulfilled.
--
I am speaking of terrestrial Nature. Through their mental power, men had the choice and the freedom to make pacts with these extraterrestrial vital forces. There is a Whole vital world that has nothing to do with the earth, it is entirely independent or prior to earths existence, it is self-existentwell, they have brought that down here! They have made what we see! And such being the case This is what terrestrial Nature told me: It is beyond my control.
So considering all that, Sri Aurobindo came to the conclusion that only the supramental power (Mother brings down her hands) as he said, will be able to rule over everything. And when that happens, it will be all overincluding Nature. For a long time, Nature rebelled (I have written about it often). She used to say, Why are you in such a hurry? It will be done one day. But then last year, there was that extraordinary experience.5 And it was because of that experience that I told her, Well, now that we agree, give me some proof; I am asking you for some proofdo it for me. She didnt budge, absolutely nothing.
Perhaps it is a kind of it can hardly be called an intuition, but a kind of divination of this idea that made people speak of selling ones soul to the devil for money, of money being an evil force, which produces this shrinking on the part of all those Who want to lead a spiritual life but as for that, they shrink from everything, not only from money!
Perhaps it would not be necessary to have this power over all men, but in any event, it should be great enough to act upon the mass. It is likely that once a certain movement has been mastered to some degree, what the mass does or doesnt do (this Whole human mass that has barely, barely emerged into even the mental consciousness) will become quite irrelevant. You see, the mass is still under the great rule of Nature. I am referring to mental humanity, predominantly mental, which developed the mind but misused it and immediately set out on the wrong pathfirst thing.
There is nothing to say since the first thing done by the divine forces which emanated for the Creation was to take the wrong path!6 That is the origin, the seed of this marvelous spirit of independence the negation of surrender, in other words. Man said, I have the power to think; I will do with it what I want, and no one has the right to intervene. I am free, I am an independent being, IN-DE-PEN-DENT! So thats how things stand: we are all independent beings!
But yesterday, in fact, I was looking (with all these mantras and these prayers and this Whole vibration that has descended into the atmosphere, creating a state of constant calling in the atmosphere), and I remembered the old movements and how everything now has changed! I was also thinking of the old disciplines, one of which is to say, I am That.7 People were told to sit in meditation and repeat, I am That, to reach an identification. And it all seemed to me so obsolete, so childish, but at the same time a part of the Whole. I looked, and it seemed so absurd to sit in meditation and say, I am That! I, what is this I Who is That; what is this I, where is it? I was trying to find it, and I saw a tiny, microscopic point (to see it would almost require some gigantic instrument), a tiny, obscure point in an im-men-sity of Light, and that little point was the body. At the same timeit was absolutely simultaneous I saw the Presence of the Supreme as a very, very, very, VERY immense Being, within which was I in an attitude of (I was only a sensation, you see), an attitude (gesture of surrender) like this. There were no limits, yet at the same time, one felt the joy of being permeated, enveloped and of being able to widen, widen, widen indefinitelyto widen the Whole being, from the highest consciousness to the most material consciousness. And then, at the same time, to look at this body and to see every cell, every atom vibrating with a divine, radiant Presence with all its Consciousness, all its Power, all its Will, all its Loveall, all, really and a joy! An extraordinary joy. And one did not disturb the other, nothing was contradictory and everything was felt at the same time. That was when I said, But truly! This body had to have the training it has had for more than seventy years to be able to bear all that without starting to cry out or dance or leap up or whatever it might be! No, it was calm (it was exultant, but it was very calm), and it remained in control of its movements and its words. In spite of the fact that it was really living in another world, it could apparently act normal due to this strenuous training in self-control by the REASONby the reasonover the Whole being, which has tamed it and given it such a great cohesive power that I can BE in the experience, I can LIVE this experience, and at the same time respond with the most amiable of smiles to the most idiotic questions!
And then, it always ends in the same way, by a canticle to the action of the grace: O, Lord! You are truly marvelous! All the experiences I have needed to pass through You have given to me, all the things I needed to do to make this body ready You have made me do, and always with the feeling that it was You Who was making me do itand with the universal disapproval of all the right-minded humanity!
About one million dollars.
--
In effect, according to tradition, the first divine forces that emanated for the creation were the Asuras, Who turned into demons. The gods were created later to repair the disorder engendered by the demons.
So'ham, the traditional mantra of the Vedantic path, which declares that the world is an illusion.
0 1958-07-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I say that every fruit should be eaten in its own way. The being Who lives according to his own nature, his own truth, must spontaneously find the right way of using things. When you live according to the truth of your being, you dont need to learn things: you do them spontaneously, according to the inner law. When you sincerely follow your nature, spontaneously and sincerely, you are divine. As soon as you think or look at yourself acting or start questioning, you are full of sin.
It is mans mental consciousness that has filled all Nature with the idea of sin and all the misery it brings. Animals are not at all unhappy in the way we are. Not at all, not at all, exceptas Sri Aurobindo saysthose that are corrupted. Those that are corrupted are those that live with men. Dogs have the sense of sin and guilt, for their Whole aspiration is to resemble man. Man is the god. Hence there is dissimulation, hypocrisy: dogs lie. But men admire that. They say, Oh! How intelligent they are!
They have lost their divinity.
--
The Divine is everywhere, in everything. We should never forget itnot for a second should we forget it. He is everywhere, in everything; and in an unconscious but spontaneous, therefore sincere, way, all that exists below the mental manifestation is divine, without mixture; in other words, it exists spontaneously and in harmony with its nature. It is man with his mind Who has introduced the idea of guilt. Naturally, he is much more conscious! Theres no question about it, its a fact, although what we call consciousness (what we call it, that is, what man calls consciousness) is the power to objectify and mentalize things. It is not the true consciousness, but its what men call consciousness. So according to the human mode, it is obvious that man is much more conscious than the animal, but the human brings in sin and perversion which do not exist outside of this state we call consciouswhich in fact is not conscious but merely consists in mentalizing things and in having the ability to objectify them.
It is an ascending curve, but a curve that swerves away from the Divine. So naturally, one has to climb much higher to find a higher Divine, since it is a conscious Divine, whereas the others are divine spontaneously and instinctively, without being conscious of it. All our moral notions of good and evil, all of that, are what we have thrown over the creation with our distorted and perverted consciousness. It is we Who have invented it.
We are the distorting intermediary between the purity of the animal and the divine purity of the gods.
0 1958-07-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But as soon as a man feels energetic, he immediately rushes into action. Or else, those Who dont have the sense of doing something useful start gossiping. And still worse, those Who have no control over themselves become intolerant and start arguing! If someone contradicts their will, they feel full of energy and they mistake that for a godlike wrath!
***
0 1958-07-25a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For it is You Who is, Who lives and Who knowsit is You Who does all things, You Who is the result of every action.
***
0 1958-08-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The gods are faultless, for they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint; it is their godly way. But if one looks at it from a higher point of view, if one has a higher vision, a vision of the Whole, they have fewer qualities than man. In this film, it was proved that through their capacity for love and self-giving, men can have as much power as the gods, and even morewhen they are not egoists, when they can overcome their egoism.
Certainly man is nearer the Supreme than the gods. Provided he fulfills the necessary conditions, he can be nearerhe isnt so automatically, but he can be, he has the power, the potentiality to be.
0 1958-08-29, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Note written by Mother after an experience She had during a playground meditation when Swami J.J. was present. It was this swami with Whom Satprem journeyed in the Himalayas to receive tantric initiation.)
[Satprem would later part company with this Swami and follow a thorough tantric discipline with another guru Who will henceforth be called X in the Agenda.]
The mantra written upon each of the souvenirs1 from the Himalayas has a strong power of evoking the Supreme Mother.
At the Thursday evening meditation, he appeared as the Guru of Tantric Initiation, magnified and seated upon a symbolic representation of the forces and riches of material Nature (in the middle of the playground, to my left), and he put into my hand something sufficiently material for me to feel the vibrations physically, and it had a great realizing power. It was a kind of luminous and very vibrant globe which I held in my hands during the Whole meditation.
S, Who was sitting in front of me, spontaneously asked me afterwards what I had been holding in my hands during the meditation, and she described it thus: It was round, very soft and luminous like the moon.
The Swami brought back various objects and souvenirs from the Himalayas which he presented to Mother.
0 1958-08-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
[The disciple Who managed the Ashram 'Atelier': mechanical workshop, maintenance garage, automobile service, etc.]
It was just at four oclock in the morning, and it woke me up. It was exactly like this I was apparently in my bathroom, and I had to open the door between the bathroom and Sri Aurobindos room; the moment I put my hand on the doorknob, I knew with an absolute certainty that destruction was awaiting me behind the door. It had the form or image of those great invaders of India, those Who had swooped down upon India and destroyed everything in their wake But it was only an impression.
So the door had to be opened and I felt and said, Lord, may your will be done. I opened the door and behind it was Z1 in the same clothes he wears when he drives, and he was leaning against one of those big tractor tiresor perhaps he was holding it at the same time. I was so dumbfounded that I woke up. It took me a little while to be able to understand what it might mean, and afterwards Even now, I still dont know What was I? Was I India, or was I the world? I dont know. And what did Z represent? It was as imperative and clear, as positive and absolute as could be: the certitude that destruction was behind the door, that it was inevitable. And it had the form of those great Tartar or Mongol invaders, those people Who came from the North and invaded India, Who pillaged everything Thats what it was like. But what Z was doing there I dont know. What does he represent? The first impulse was to tell Abhay Singh, Forbid him to drive the tractor.
(Pavitra:) What was he holding in his hands, Mother?
--
A young disciple Who worked in the Atelier.
***
0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have a Whole stock of mantras; they have all come spontaneously, never from the head. They sprang forth spontaneously, as the Veda is said to have sprung forth.
I dont know when it begana very long time ago, before I came here, although some of them came while I was here. But in my case, they were always very short. For example, when Sri Aurobindo was here in his body, at any moment, in any difficulty, for anything, it always came like this: My Lord!simply and spontaneouslyMy Lord! And instantly, the contact was established. But since He left, it has stopped. I can no longer say it, for it would be like saying My Lord, My Lord! to myself.
I had a mantra in French before coming to Pondicherry. It was Dieu de bont et de misricorde [God of kindness and mercy], but what it means is usually not understoodit is an entire program, a universal program. I have been repeating this mantra since the beginning of the century; it was the mantra of ascension, of realization. At present, it no longer comes in the same way, it comes rather as a memory. But it was deliberate, you see; I always said Dieu de bont et de misricorde, because even then I understood that everything is the Divine and the Divine is in all things and that it is only we Who make a distinction between what is or what is not the Divine.
My experience is that, individually, we are in relationship with that aspect of the Divine which is not necessarily the most in conformity with our natures, but which is the most essential for our development or the most necessary for our action. For me, it was always a question of action because, personally, individually, each aspiration for personal development had its own form, its own spontaneous expression, so I did not use any formula. But as soon as there was the least little difficulty in action, it sprang forth. Only long afterwards did I notice that it was formulated in a certain way I would utter it without even knowing what the words were. But it came like this: Dieu de bont et de misricorde. It was as if I wanted to eliminate from action all aspects that were not this one. And it lasted for I dont know, more than twenty or twenty-five years of my life. It came spontaneously.
Just recently one day, the contact became entirely physical, the Whole body was in great exaltation, and I noticed that other lines were spontaneously being added to this Dieu de bont et de misricorde, and I noted them down. It was a springing forth of states of consciousness not words.
Seigneur, Dieu de bont et de misricorde
--
I understood those Who withdraw from everything to live that totally.
And it has such a transformative power! I felt that if it continued, something would happen, something like a change in the equilibrium of the bodys cells.
Unfortunately, I was unable to continue, because I dont have the time; it was just before the balcony darshan and I was going to be late. Something told me, That is for people Who have nothing to do. Then I said, I belong to my work, and I slowly withdrew. I put on the brakes, and the action was cut short. But what remains is that whenever I repeat this mantra everything starts vibrating.
So each one must find something that acts on himself, individually. I am only speaking of the action on the physical plane, because mentally, vitally, in all the inner parts of the being, the aspiration is always, always spontaneous. I am referring only to the physical plane.
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The other day when I was in this state of concentration, I had the vision that I mentioned to you. I felt I was being pulled, that something was pulling me and trying to draw my attention. I felt it very strongly. So I opened my eyes, my mental eyes (the physical eyes may remain opened or closed, it makes no difference either way; when I am concentrated, things on the physical plane no longer exist), I deliberately opened the minds eyes, for that is where I felt myself being pulled, and then I had this vision I told you of. Someone was trying to draw my attention, to tell me something. It takes someone really quite powerful, with a very great power of concentration, to do thatthere are certainly a great many people here and elsewhere Who try to do this, yet I dont feel a thing.3
In the outer, practical domain, I might suddenly think of someone, so I know that this person is calling or thinking of me. When you left on your trip, I created a special link-up so that if ever, at any moment, you called me for anything, I would know it instantly, and I remained attentive and alert. But I do that only in exceptional cases. Generally speaking, when I havent made this special link-up, things keep coming in and coming in and coming in and coming in, and the answer goes out automatically, here or there or there or therehundreds and hundreds of things that I dont keep in my memory because then it would really be frightful. I dont keep these things in my consciousness; it is rather a work that is done automatically.
When you asked me if X4 were thinking of me, I consulted my atmosphere and saw that it was true, that even many times a day Xs thoughts were coming. So I know that he is concentrating on me, or something: it simply passes through me, and I answer automatically. But I dont particularly pay attention to X, unless you ask me a question about him, in which case I deliberately tune into him, then observe and determine whether its like this or like that. Whereas this vision the other day was something that thrust itself on me; I was in another region altogether, in my inner contemplation, my concentrationa very strong concentrationwhen I was forced to enter into contact with this being Whose vision I had and Who was obviously a very powerful being. After telling me what he had to tell me, he went away in a very peculiar way, not at all suddenly as most people appear and disappear, not at all like that. When I first saw him, there was a living form the being himself was there but upon leaving (probably to see the effect, to find out whether he had truly succeeded in making himself understood), he left behind a kind of image of himself. Afterwards, this image blurred and it left only a silhouette, an outline, then it disappeared altogether leaving only an impression. That was the last thing I saw. So I kept the impression and analyzed it to find out exactly what was involved; all this was filed away, and then it was over. I began my concentration once again.
I intentionally carry everybody in my active consciousness for the work, and I do the work consciously; but the extent to which people in the world, or those Who are here in the Ashram, are conscious of this or receive the results depends upon them, though not exclusively.
The other day, for example, though I no longer recall exactly when (I forget everything on purpose)but it was in the last part of the night I had a rather long activity concerning the Whole realization of the Ashram, notably in the fields of education and art. I was apparently inspecting this area to see how things were there, so naturally I saw a certain number of people, their work and their inner states. Some saw me and, at that moment, had a vision of me. It is likely that many were asleep and didnt notice anything, but some actually saw me. The next morning, for example, someone Who works at the theater told me that she had had a splendid vision of me in which I had spoken to her, blessed her, etc. This was her way of receiving the work I had done. And this kind of thing is happening more and more, in that my action is awakening the consciousness in others more and more strongly.
Naturally, the reception is always incomplete or partially modified; when it passes through the individuality, it becomes narrowed, a personal thing. It seems impossible for each one to have a consciousness vast enough to see the thing in its entirety.
--
The progress above follows a certain trajectory, and in some cases the distance increases, in others it decreases (although on the Whole, the distance remains relatively unchanged), but my feeling is that the collective receptivity will increase as the action becomes increasingly supramentalized. And the need for an individual receptivitywith all its distortions and alterations and limitationswill decrease in importance as the supramental influence increasingly imposes its power. This influence will impose itself in such a way that it will no longer be subject to the defects in receptivity.
***
--
The difficultyits not even a difficulty, its just a kind of precaution that is taken (automatically, in fact) in order to For example, the volume of Force that was to be expressed in the voice was too great for the speech organ. So I had to be a little attentive that is, there had to be a kind of filtering in the outermost expression, otherwise the voice would have cracked. But this isnt done through the will and reason, its automatic. Yet I feel that the capacity of Matter to contain and express is increasing with phenomenal speed. But its progressive, it cant be done instantly. There have often been people Whose outer form broke because the Force was too strong; well, I clearly see that it is being dosed out. After all, this is exclusively the concern of the Supreme Lord, I dont bother about itits not my concern and I dont bother about itHe makes the necessary adjustments. Thus it comes progressively, little by little, so that no fundamental disequilibrium occurs. It gives the impression that ones head is swelling so tremendously it will burst! But then if there is a moment of stillness, it adapts; gradually, it adapts.
Only, one must be careful to keep the sense of the Unmanifest sufficiently present so that the various things the elements, the cells and all thathave time to adapt. The sense of the Unmanifest, or in other words, to step back into the Unmanifest.6 This is what all those Who have had experiences have done; they always believed that there was no possibility of adaptation, so they left their bodies and went off.
***
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Money belongs to the one Who spends it; that is an absolute law. You may pile up money, but it doesnt belong to you until you spend it. Then you have the merit, the glory, the joy, the pleasure of spending it!
Money is meant to circulate. What should remain constant is the progressive movement of an increase in the earths productionan ever-expanding progressive movement to increase the earths production and improve existence on earth. It is the material improvement of terrestrial life and the growth of the earths production that must go on expanding, enlarging, and not this silly paper or this inert metal that is amassed and lifeless.
Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can providenot as its generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the spiritual education and progress through yoga; the Whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earths progress, the best use of what the earth can giveits intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. The use that allows energies to be replenished.
In the universe there is an inexhaustible source of energy that asks only to be replenished; if you know how to go about it, it is replenished. Instead of draining life and the energies of our earth and making of it something parched and inert, we must know the practical exercise for replenishing the energy constantly. And these are not just words; I know how its to be done, and science is in the process of thoroughly finding outit has found out most admirably. But instead of using it to satisfy human passions, instead of using what science has found so that men may destroy each other more effectively than they are presently doing, it must be used to enrich the earth: to enrich the earth, to make the earth richer and richer, more active, generous, productive and to make all life grow towards its maximum efficiency. This is the true use of money. And if its not used like that, its a vicea short circuit and a vice.
But how many people know how to use it in this way? Very few, which is why they have to be taught. What I call teach is to show, to give the example. We want to be the example of true living in the world. Its a challenge I am placing before the Whole financial world: I am telling them that they are in the process of withering and ruining the earth with their idiotic system; and with even less than they are now spending for useless thingsmerely for inflating something that has no inherent life, that should be only an instrument at the service of life, that has no reality in itself, that is only a means and not an end (they make an end of something that is only a means)well then, instead of making of it an end, they should make it the means. With what they have at their disposal they could oh, transform the earth so quickly! Transform it, put it into contact, truly into contact, with the supramental forces that would make life bountiful and, indeed, constantly renewedinstead of becoming withered, stagnant, shrivelled up: a future moon. A dead moon.
We are told that in a few millions or billions of years, the earth will become some kind of moon. The movement should be the opposite: the earth should become more and more a resplendent sun, but a sun of life. Not a sun that burns, but a sun that illuminesa radiant glory.
--
In this vision, the d. ceased tantric guru of the guru Who initiated Satprem appeared to Mother in a dark blue light and 'imposed' himself on her to tell her certain things.
The disciple's tantric guru.
0 1958-10-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Certain relationships are entirely within me, entirely. It is not a relationship between individuals, but a relationship between states of beingwhich means that with the same individual there may be many different relationships. If it were a single Whole but I am still not sure if there is a single person with Whom the relationship is global.
So there are parts which are entirely within me, entirely there is no difference; they are myself. There are other parts with which I am conscious of an exchangea very familiar, very intimate exchange. And there are parts outside of me with which I still have relationships, not exactly as with strangers but merely as acquaintances; it is still necessary to observe their reactions in order to do the correct thing. And the ratio between these different parts is naturally different depending upon the different individuals.
0 1958-10-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is the Supreme Lord Who has ineluctably decreed the place you occupy in the universal concert, but whatever be this place, you have equally the same right as all others to ascend the supreme summits right to the supramental realization.
There is ones position in the universal hierarchy, which is something ineluctableit is the eternal lawand there is the development in the manifestation, which is an education; it is progressive and done from within the being. What is remarkable is that to become a perfect being, this positionwhatever it is, decreed since all eternity, a part of the eternal Truthmust manifest with the greatest possible perfection as a result of evolutionary growth. It is the junction, the union of the two, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization, that will make the total and perfect being, and the manifestation as the Lord has willed it since the beginning of all eternity (which has no beginning at all! ).
And for the cycle to be complete, one cannot stop on the way at any plane, not even the highest spiritual plane nor the plane closest to matter (like the occult plane in the vital, for example). One must descend right into matter, and this perfection in manifestation must be a material perfection, or otherwise the cycle is not completewhich explains why those Who want to flee in order to realize the divine Will are in error. What must be done is exactly the opposite! The two must be combined in a perfect way. This is why all the honest sciences, the sciences that are practiced sincerely, honestly, exclusively with a will to know, are difficult pathsyet such sure paths for the total realization.
It brings up very interesting things. (What I am going to say now is very personal and consequently cannot be used, but it may be kept anyway:)
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On the one hand, there is what Sri Aurobindo Who, as the Avatar, represented the supreme Consciousness and Will on earthdeclared me to be, that is, the supreme universal Mother; and on the other hand, there is what I am realizing in my body through the integral sadhana.2 I could be the supreme Mother and not do any sadhana, and as a matter of fact, as long as Sri Aurobindo was in his body, it was he Who did the sadhana, and I received the effects. These effects were automatically established in the outer being, but he was the one doing it, not II was merely the bridge between his sadhana and the world. Only when he left his body was I forced to take up the sadhana myself; not only did I have to do what I was doing beforebeing a bridge between his sadhana and the world but I had to carry on the sadhana myself. When he left, he turned over to me the responsibility for what he himself had been doing in his body, and I had to do it. So there are both these things. Sometimes one predominates, sometimes the other (I dont mean successively in time, but it depends on the moment), and they are trying to combine in a total and perfect realization: the eternal, ineffable and immutable Consciousness of the Executrice of the Supreme, and the consciousness of the Sadhak of the integral Yoga Who strives in an ascending effort towards an ever increasing progression.
To this has been added a growing initiation into the supramental realization which is (I understand it well now) the perfect union of what comes from above and what comes from below, or in other words, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization.
Then and this becomes rather amusing like lifes play Depending upon each ones nature and position and bias, and because human beings are very limited, very partial and incapable of a global vision, there are those Who believe, Who have faith, or to Whom the eternal Mother is revealed through Grace, Who have this kind of relationship with the eternal Mother and there are those Who themselves are plunged in sadhana, Who have the consciousness of a developed sadhak, and thereby have the same relationship with me as one has with what they generally call a realized soul. Such persons consider me the prototype of the Guru teaching a new way, but the others dont have this relationship of sadhak to Guru (I am taking the two extremes, but of course there are all the possibilities in between), they are only in contact with the eternal Mother and, in the simplicity of their hearts, they expect Her to do everything for them. If they were perfect in this attitude, the eternal Mother would do everything for themas a matter of fact, She does do everything, but as they arent perfect, they cannot receive it totally. But the two paths are very different, the two kinds of relationships are very different; and as we all live according to the law of external things, in a material body, there is a kind of annoyance, an almost irritated misunderstanding, between those Who follow this path (not consciously and intentionally, but spontaneously), Who have this relationship of the child to the Mother, and those Who have this other relationship of the sadhak to the Guru. So it creates a Whole play, with an infinite diversity of shades.
But all this is still in suspense, on the way to realization, moving forward progressively; therefore, unless we are able to see the outcome, we cant understand a thing. We get confused. Only when we see the outcome, the final realization, only when we have TOUCHED there, will everything be understood then it will be as clear and as simple as can be. But meanwhile, my relationships with different people are very funny, utterly amusing!
Those Who have what I would call the more outer relationship compared to the other (although it is not really so)the relationship of yoga, of sadhanaconsider the others superstitious; and the others, Who have faith OI perception, or the Grace to have understood what Sri Aurobindo meant (perhaps even before knowing what he said, but in any event, after he said it), discard the others as ignorant unbelievers! And there are all the gradations in between, so it really becomes quite funny!
It opens up extraordinary horizons; once you have understood this, you have the keyyou have the key to many, many things: the different positions of each of the different saints, the different realizations and it resolves all the incoherencies of the various manifestations on earth.
For example, this question of PowerTHE Powerover Matter. Those Who perceive me as the eternal, universal Mother and Sri Aurobindo as the Avatar are surprised that our power is not absolute. They are surprised that we have not merely to say, Let it be thus for it to be thus. This is because, in the integral realization, the union of the two is essential: a union of the power that proceeds from the eternal position and the power that proceeds from the sadhana through evolutionary growth. Similarly, how is it that those Who have reached even the summits of yogic knowledge (I was thinking of Swami) need to resort to beings like gods or demigods to be able to realize things?Because they have indeed united with certain higher forces and entities, but it was not decreed since the beginning of time that they were this particular being. They were not born as this or that, but through evolution they united with a latent possibility in themselves. Each one carries the Eternal within himself, but one can join Him only when one has realized the complete union of the latent Eternal with the eternal Eternal.
And this explains everything, absolutely everything: how it works, how it functions in the world.3 I was saying to myself, But I have no powers, I have no powers! Several days ago, I said, But after all, I KNOW Who is there, I know, yet how is it that ? There, up to there (the level of the head), it is all-powerful, nothing can resist but here it is ineffective. So those Who have faith, even an ignorant but real faith (it can be ignorant but nevertheless it is real), say, What! How can you have no powers? Because the sadhana is not yet over.
The Lord will possess his universe only when the universe will have consciously become the Lord.
0 1958-10-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The first group ends with a helping hand to those Who have made the wrong choice (!):
7) But even in the event you have not made the irrevocable decision at the outset, should you have the good fortune to live during one of these unimaginable hours of universal history when the Grace is present, embodied upon earth, It will offer you, at certain exceptional moments, the renewed possibility of making a final choice that will lead you straight to the goal.
0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I had a Danish friend, an artist, to Whom this happened. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of his body. He had interesting dreams so he thought it might be worthwhile to go there consciously. I helped him to go out but it was frightful! When he dreamed, a part of his mind indeed remained conscious, active, and a kind of link remained between this active part and his outer being, so he remembered some of his dreams, but it was only a very partial phenomenon. To go out of your body means that you must gradually pass through ALL the states of being, if you are to do it systematically. But already in the subtle physical it was almost non-individualized, and as soon as he went a bit further, there was no longer anything! It was unformed, nonexistent.
So they sit down (they are told to interiorize, to go within themselves), and they panic!Naturally they feel that they that they are disappearing: there is nothing! There is no consciousness!
0 1958-11-04 - Myths are True and Gods exist - mental formation and occult faculties - exteriorization - work in dreams, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The gods of the Puranas are merciless gods Who respect only power and have nothing of the true love, charity or profound goodness that the Divine has put into the human consciousness and which compensate psychically for all the outer defects. They themselves have nothing of this, they have no psychic.1 The Puranic gods have no psychic, so they act according to their power. They are restrained only when their power is not all-powerful, thats all.
But what does Anusuya represent?2
She is a portrait of the ideal woman according to the Hindu conception, the woman Who worships her husb and as a god, which means that she sees the Supreme in her husband. And so this woman was much more powerful than all the gods of the Puranas precisely because she had this psychic capacity for total self-giving; and her faith in the Supremes presence in her husb and gave her a much greater power than that of all the gods.
The story narrated in the film went like this: Narada, as usual, was having fun. (Narada is a demigod with a divine position that is, he can communicate with man and with the gods as he pleases, and he serves as an intermediary, but then he likes to have fun!) So he was quarrelling with one of the goddesses, I no longer recall which one, and he told her (Ah, yes! The quarrel was with Saraswati.) Saraswati was telling him that knowledge is much greater than love (much greater in that it is much more powerful than love), and he replied to her, You dont know what youre talking about! (Mother laughs) Love is much more powerful than knowledge. So she challenged him, saying, Well then, prove it to me.I shall prove it to you, he replied. And the Whole story starts there. He began creating a Whole imbroglio on earth just to prove his point.
It was only a film story, but anyway, the goddesses, the three wives of the Trimurti that is, the consort of Brahma, the consort of Vishnu and the consort of Shivajoined forces (!) and tried all kinds of things to foil Narada. I no longer recall the details of the story Oh yes, the story begins like this: one of the three I believe it was Shivas consort, Parvati (she was the worst one, by the way!)was doing her puja. Shiva was in meditation, and she began doing her puja in front of him; she was using an oil lamp for the puja, and the lamp fell down and burned her foot. She cried out because she had burned her foot. So Shiva at once came out of his meditation and said to her, What is it, Devi? (laughter) She answered, I burned my foot! Then Narada said, Arent you ashamed of what you have done?to make Shiva come out of his meditation simply because you have a little burn on your foot, which cannot even hurt you since you are immortal! She became furious and snapped at him, Show me that it can be otherwise! Narada replied, I am going to show you what it is to really love ones husbandyou dont know anything about it!
Then comes the story of Anusuya and her husb and ( Who is truly a husb and a very good man, but well, not a god, after all!), Who was sleeping with his head resting upon Anusuyas knees. They had finished their puja (both of them were worshippers of Shiva), and after their puja he was resting, sleeping, with his head on Anusuyas knees. Meanwhile, the gods had descended upon earth, particularly this Parvati, and they saw Anusuya like that. Then Parvati exclaimed, This is a good occasion! Not very far away a cooking fire was burning. With her power, she sent the fire rolling down onto Anusuyas feetwhich startled her because it hurt. It began to burn; not one cry, not one movement, nothing because she didnt want to awaken her husband. But she began invoking Shiva (Shiva was there). And because she invoked Shiva (it is lovely in the story), because she invoked Shiva, Shivas foot began burning! (Mother laughs) Then Narada showed Shiva to Parvati: Look what you are doing; you are burning your husbands foot! So Parvati made the opposite gesture and the fire was put out.
Thats how it went.
--
If I were to narrate the Whole thing to you, there would be no end to it, but anyway, you get the idea.
***
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No, not uniquely. It could apply in many other eases. Even if the Christians dont understand, there are many others Who will!
Those Who have read a little and Who know something other than their little rut will understand.
There is something similar between the Puranic gods and the gods of Greek or Egyptian mythology. The gods of Egyptian mythology are terrible beings They cut off peoples heads, tear their enemies to pieces!
--
They are beings Who belong to the progressive creation of the universe and Who have themselves presided over its formation from the most etheric or subtle regions to the most material regions. They are a descent of the divine creative Spirit that came to repair the mischief in short, to repair what the Asuras had done. The first makers created disorder and darkness, an unconsciousness, and then it is said that there was a second lineage of makers to repair that evil, and the gods gradually descended through realities that were ever moreone cant say dense because it isnt really dense, nor can one even say material, since matter as we know it does not exist on these planesthrough more and more concrete substances.
All these zones, these planes of reality, received different names and were classified in different ways according to the occult schools, according to the different traditions, but there is an essential similarity, and if we go back far enough into the various traditions, hardly anything but words differ, depending upon the country and the language. The descriptions are quite similar. Moreover, those Who climb back up the ladderor in other words, a human being Who, through his occult knowledge, goes out of one of his bodies (they are called sheaths in English) and enters into a more subtle bodyin order to ACT in a more subtle body and so forth, twelve times (you make each body come out from a more material body, leaving the more material body in its corresponding zone, and then go off through successive exteriorizations), what they have seen, what they have discovered and seen through their ascensionwhe ther they are occultists from the Occident or occultists from the Orientis for the most part analogous in description. They have put different words on it, but the experience is very analogous.
There is the Whole Chaldean tradition, and there is also the Vedic tradition, and there was very certainly a tradition anterior to both that split into two branches. Well, all these occult experiences have been the same. Only the description differs depending upon the country and the language. The story of creation is not told from a metaphysical or psychological point of view, but from an objective point of view, and this story is as real as our stories of historical periods. Of course, its not the only way of seeing, but it is just as legitimate a way as the others, and in any event, it recognizes the concrete reality of all these divine beings. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists exhibit great similarities. The only difference is in the way they are expressed, but the manipulation of the forces is the same.
I learned all this through Theon. Probably, he was I dont know if he was Russian or Polish (a Russian or Polish Jew), he never said Who he really was or where he was born, nor his age nor anything.
He had assumed two names: one was an Arab name he had adopted when he took refuge in Algeria (I dont know for what reason). After having worked with Blavatsky and having founded an occult society in Egypt, he went to Algeria, and there he first called himself Aa Aziz (a word of Arabic origin meaning the beloved). Then, when he began setting up his Cosmic Review and his cosmic group, he called himself Max Theon, meaning the supreme God (!), the greatest God! And no one knew him by any other name than these twoAa Aziz or Max Theon.
--
But now, there is only a very small number of people in the West Who know that it isnt merely subjective or imaginative (the result of a more or less unbridled imagination), and that it corresponds to a universal truth.
All these regions, all these realms are filled with beings Who exist separately in their own realms, and if you are awake and conscious on a given plane for example, if while going out of a more material body you awaken on some higher planeyou can have the same relationship with the things and people of that plane as with the things and people of the material world. In other words, there exists an entirely objective relationship that has nothing to do with your own idea of things. Naturally, the resemblance becomes greater and greater as you draw nearer the physical world, the material world, and there is even a moment when one region can act directly upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the kingdoms of the overmind, you find a concrete reality entirely independent of your personal experience; whenever you come back to it, you again find the same things, with some differences that may have occurred DURING YOUR ABSENCE. And your relationships with the beings there are identical to those you have with physical beings, except that they are more flexible, more supple and more direct (for example, there is a capacity to change the outer form, the visible form, according to your inner state), but you can make an appointment with someone, come to the meeting and again find the same being, with only certain differences that may have occurred during your absence but it is absolutely concrete, with absolutely concrete results.
However, you must have at least a little experience of these things to understand them. Otherwise, if you are convinced that all this is just human fancy or mental formations, if you believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have imagined them to be like that, or that they have such and such defects or qualities because men have envisioned it that wayas with all those Who say God is created in the image of man and exists only in human thoughtall such people wont understand, it will seem absolutely ridiculous to them, a kind of madness. You must live a little, touch the subject a little to know how concrete it is.
Naturally, children know a great dealif they have not been spoiled. There are many children Who return to the same place night after night and continue living a life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoiled with age, they can be preserved within one. There was a time when I was especially interested in dreams, and I could return exactly to the same place and continue some work I had begun there, visit something, for example, or see to something, some work of organization or some discovery or exploration; you go to a certain place, just as you go somewhere in life, then you rest a while, then you go back and begin againyou take up your work just where you left it, and you continue. You also notice that there are things entirely independent of you, certain variations which were not at all created by you and which occurred automatically during your absence.
But then, you must LIVE these experiences yourself; you yourself must see, you must live them with enough sincerity to see (by being sincere and spontaneous) that they are independent of any mental formations. Because one can take the opposite line and make an intensive study of the way mental formations act upon eventswhich is very interesting. But thats another field. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you start noticing to what extent you can delude yourself. Therefore, both one and the other, the mental formation and the occult reality, must be studied to see what the ESSENTIAL difference is between them. The one exists in itself, entirely independent of what we think about it, and the other
--
It doesnt happen very frequently in this world. And thats why these experiences, which otherwise seem quite natural, quite obvious, appear to be extravagant fancies to people Who know nothing.
But if you transposed this to France, to the West, unless you frequent occult circles, people would look at you with And behind your back, they would say, That person is cracked!
--
There are subtle bodies and subtle worlds that correspond to these bodies; it is what the psychological method calls states of consciousness, but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult process consists in becoming aware of these various inner states of being, or subtle bodies, and of mastering them sufficiently to be able to make one come out of the other, successively. For there is a Whole hierarchy of increasing subtletiesor decreasing, depending upon the direction and the occult process consists in making a more subtle body come out from a denser body, and so forth, right to the most ethereal regions. You go out through successive exteriorizations into more and more subtle bodies or worlds. Each time it is rather like passing into another dimension. In fact, the fourth dimension of the physicists is only the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge.
To give another comparison, it could be said that the physical body is at the centerit is the most material and the most condensed, as well as the smallestand the more subtle inner bodies increasingly overlap the limits of this central physical body; they pass through it and extend further and further out, like water evaporating from a porous vase which creates a kind of steam all around it. And the more subtle it is, the more its extension tends to fuse with that of the universe: you finally become universal. It is an entirely concrete process that makes the invisible worlds an objective experience and even allows you to act in those worlds.
0 1958-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I found my message for the 1st of January It was quite unforeseen. Yesterday morning, I thought, All the same, I have to find my message, but what? I was absolutely like that, neutral, nothing. Then yesterday evening at the class (of Friday, November 7) I noticed that these children Who had had a Whole week to prepare their questions on the text had not found a single one! A terrible lethargy! A total lack of interest. And when I had finished speaking, I thought to myself, But what IS there in these people Who are interested in nothing but their personal little affairs? So I began descending into their mental atmosphere, in search of the little light, of that which responds And it literally pulled me downwards as into a hole, but in such a material way; my hand, which was on the arm of the chair, began slipping down, my other hand went like this (to the ground), my head, too! I thought it was going to touch my knees!
And I had the impression It was not an impression I saw it. I was descending into a crevasse between two steep rocks, rocks that appeared to be made of something harder than basalt, BLACK, but metallic at the same time, with such sharp edgesit seemed that a mere touch would lacerate you. It appeared endless and bottomless, and it kept getting narrower, narrower and narrower, narrower and narrower, like a funnel, so narrow that there was almost no more roomnot even for the consciousness to pass through. And the bottom was invisible, a black hole. And it went down, down, down, like that, without air, without light, except for a sort of glimmer that enabled me to make out the rock edges. They seemed to be cut so steeply, so sharply Finally, when my head began touching my knees, I asked myself, But what is there at the bottom of this this hole?
--
It seemed to contain a Whole wealth of possibilities, and all this that was formless had the power to become form.
At the time, I wondered what it meant. Later, of course, I found out, and finally this morning, I said to myself, Ah, so thats it! It came to give me my message for the new year! Then I transcribed the experienceit cant be described, of course, for it was indescribable; it was a psychological phenomenon and the form it took was only a way of describing the psychological state to oneself. Here is what I wrote down, obviously in a mental way, and I am thinking of using it as my message.
0 1958-11-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The objectification of the experience came progressively, as always happens to me. When I have the experience, I am absolutely blank, like a newborn baby to Whom things come just like that. I dont know what is happening, and I expect nothing. How much time it has taken me to learn this!
There is no preliminary thought, preliminary knowledge, preliminary will: all those things do not exist. I am only like a mirror receiving the experience, the simplicity of a little child learning life. It is like that. And it is the gift of the Grace, truly the Grace: in the face of the experience, the simplicity of a little child just born. And it is spontaneously so, but deliberately too; in other words, during the experience I am very careful not to watch myself having the experience so that no previous knowledge intervenes. Only afterwards do I see. It is not a mental construction, nor does it come from something higher than the mind (it is not even a knowledge by identity that makes me see things); no, the body (when the experience is in the body) is like that, what in English is called blank. As if it had just been born, as if just then it were being born with the experience.
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Was it the Supreme at the very bottom of the Inconscient Who cast you up directly to the Supreme?
Yes. Because at the very bottom of the Inconscient is the Supreme. It is the same idea as the highest height touching the deepest depth. The universe is like a circleit is represented by the serpent biting its tail, its head touching its tail. It means that the supreme height touches the most material matter, without any intermediary. I have already said this several times. But that was the experience. I didnt know what was happening. I expected nothing and it was stupendousin a single bound, I sprang up! If someone had had his eyes open, I assure you he would have had to laugh: I was bent over, like this, more and more, more and more, more and more, my head was just about to touch my knees when suddenlyvrrrm! Straight, straight up, my head upright in a single bound!
0 1958-11-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Through my friends in Hyderabad, I can contact some people Who are doing business in the forests of the Belgian Congo. I want to go there, alone and far away from everything.
But there is always this wretched question of money. I need it to leave and to pay for the journey. Afterwards, I will manage. Anyway, it is all the same to me; I am not afraid of anything any longer.
0 1958-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is precisely this state of perfect Harmony beyond all attacks that will become possible with the supramental realization. It is what all those Who are destined for the supramental transformation will realize. The hostile forces know it well; in the supramental world, they will automatically disappear. Having no more utility, they will be dissolved without our having to do anything, simply through the presence of the supramental force. So now they are being unleashed with a fury in a negation of everything, everything.
The link between the two worlds has not yet been built, but it is in the process of being built; this was the meaning of the experience of February 3 1958, 1: to build a link between the two worlds. For both worlds are indeed therenot one above the other, but within each other, in two different dimensions. Only, there is no communication between them; they overlap, as it were, without being connected. In the experience of February 3, I saw certain people from here (and from elsewhere) Who already belong to the supramental world in a part of their being, but there is no connection, no link. But now the hour has come in universal history for this link to be built.
What is the relationship between this experience of February 3 and that of November 7 (the almighty spring)? Is what you found in the depths of the Inconscient this same Supramental?
--
It can be expressed in this way (but its quite approximate, more than diminished or deformed): its as if our entire spiritual life were made of silver, whereas the supramental life is made of goldas if our entire spiritual life here were a vibration of silver, not gold but simply a light, a light that goes right to the summit, an absolutely pure light, pure and intense; but in the other, in the supramental world, there is a richness and a power that make all the difference. This Whole spiritual life of the psychic being and of all our present consciousness that appears so warm, so full, so wonderful, so luminous to the ordinary consciousness, well, all this splendor seems poor in comparison to the splendor of the new world.
I can explain the phenomenon like this: successive reversals such that an EVER NEW richness of creation will take place from stage to stage, making whatever came before seem so poor in comparison. What to us seems supremely rich compared to our ordinary life, appears so poor compared to this new reversal of consciousness. Such was my experience.
0 1958-11-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was VERY HAPPY with the vision, for there was a great POWER, though it was rather terrible. But it was magnificent. When I saw that, I This vision was given to me because I had concentrated with a will to find the solution, a true solution, an enduring and permanent solution that is, I had this spontaneous gratitude which goes out to the Grace when it brings some effective help. Only, what followed was interrupted by someone Who came to call me and that cut it short, but it will return.
But now I KNOWbefore I did not know. The other morning I saw, and I was told very clearly that it was a karma1 to be worked out; so then I told you, but at the time I didnt know what it was.
0 1958-11-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And ifit can happenif the second attempt also miscarries, if the conditions make the experience the soul is seeking still more difficult for example, if one is in a body with an inadequate will or some distortion in the thought, or an egoism too too hardened, and it ends in suicide, it is dreadful. I have seen this many times, it creates a dreadful karma that can be repeated for lifetimes on end before the soul can conquer it and manage to do what it wants. And each time, the conditions become more difficult, each time it requires a still greater effort. And people Who know this say, You cannot get out! In fact, it is this kind of desire to escape which pushes you into more foolish things3 that result in a still greater accumulation of difficulty. There are momentsmoments and circumstanceswhen no one is there to help you, and then things become so horrible, the circumstances become so abominable.
But if the soul has had but ONE call, but ONE contact with the Grace, then in your next life you are put in the conditions, once, whereby EVERYTHING can be swept away at one stroke. And at this present moment on earth, you cannot imagine the number of people I have met that is, the number of souls Who had reached out towards this possibility with such an intensity and they have all found themselves on my path.
--
And then, more and more, I felt that if what I saw, as I saw it, could be realized I saw two things: a journeynot at all a pilgrimage as it is commonly understooda journey towards solitude in arduous conditions, and a sojourn in a very severe solitude, facing the mountains, in arduous physical conditions. The contact with this majesty of Nature has a great influence upon the ego at certain moments: it has the power to dissolve it. But all this complication, all these organized pilgrimages, all that it brings in the Whole petty side of human life which spoils everything
Yes, that Whole journey was odious
which spoils everything.
The other thing was the tantric initiation. But I wanted the conditions of this initiation to be at least as favorable as those in Rameswaram, by which I mean conducted by someone very capable and as far as possible free from the Whole formalistic and external side. A TRUE initiationsomeone Who would be capable of pulling down the Power and putting you in conditions rigorous enough for you to be able to hold this Power, to receive it and hold it.
As soon as you had left, and since I was following you, I saw that nothing of the kind was going to happen, but rather something very superficial which would not be of much use. And when I received your letters and saw that you were in difficulty, I did something. There are places that are favorable for occult experiences. Benares is one of these places, the atmosphere there is filled with vibrations of occult forces, and if one has the slightest capacity, it spontaneously develops there, in the same way that a spiritual aspiration develops very strongly and spontaneously as soon as one lands in India. These are Graces. Graces, because it is the destiny of the country, it has been so throughout its history, and because India has always been turned much more towards the heights and the inner depths than towards the outer world. Now, it is in the process of losing all that and wallowing in the mud, but thats another story it was like that and it is still like that. And in fact, when you returned from Rameswaram with your robes, I saw with much satisfaction that there was still a GREAT dignity and a GREAT sincerity in this endeavor of the Sannyasis towards the higher life and in the self-giving of a certain number of people to realize this higher life. When you returned, it had become a very concrete and a very real thing that immediately commanded respect. Before, I had seen only a copy, an imitation, an hypocrisy, a pretentionnothing that was really lived. But then, I saw that it was true, that it was lived, that it was real and that it was still Indias great heritage. I dont believe it is very prevalent now, but in any case, it is still there, and as I told you, it commands respect. And then, as I felt you in difficulty and as the outer conditions were not only veiling but spoiling the inner, well, on that day I wrote you a short note I no longer recall when it was exactly, but I wrote you just a word or two, which I put in an envelope and sent you I concentrated very strongly upon those few words and sent you something. I didnt note the date, I dont remember when it was, but its likely that it happened as I wished when you were in Benares; and then you had this experience.
--
The first tantric guru Whom the disciple joined in Ceylon and with Whom he travelled in the Himalayas.
Original English.
0 1958-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
That is why the journey is so long, so difficult. For if one would truly consent no longer to be, everything would become so easy, so swift, so luminous, so joyousthough perhaps not in the way men conceive of joy and ease. At heart, there are very few beings Who are not enamored of struggle. There are very few Who would consent to having no darkness or Who can conceive of light as anything other than the opposite of obscurity: Without shadow, there would be no painting. Without struggle, there would be no victory. Without suffering, there would be no joy. That is what they think, and as long as they think like that, they are not yet born to the spirit.
***
0 1958-11-27 - Intermediaries and Immediacy, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
That interested me very much. Because one of the obstacles I had felt was that although the Force was acting well, there was a time lag that appeared inevitable, a time element in the work which seemed unavoidablea play left to the forces of Nature. But with their knowledge of the processes, the tantrics can dispense with all that. So I understood why those Who have studied, Who are initiated and follow the prescribed methods are apparently more powerfulmore powerful even than those Who are conscious in the highest consciousness.
What interested me is that in their case (those Who follow tantric or other initiations), what is doubtful is whether or not they can succeed in receiving the response of the true Power, the divine power, the supreme power; they do everything they can, but this question still remains. Whereas for me, it is the opposite situation: the Power is there, I have it, but how can I make it act here in matter? The process for making it act immediately was missingthough not totally; I know from the psychological standpoint, but there is something other than the psychological power, there is the Whole play of conscious, individualized forces that are everywhere in Nature and that have the right to exist. Since it was created this way, it must express something of the supreme Will, otherwise He wouldnt have made use of intermediaries but in His plan, it is obvious that the intermediary has a legitimate place.
It is like the story X told me of his guru2 Who could comm and the coming of Kali (something which seems quite natural to me when one is sufficiently developed); well, not only could he commend the coming of Kali, but Kali with I dont know how many crores of her warriors! For me, Kali was Kali, after all, and she did her work; but in the universal organization, her action, the innumerable multiplicity of her action, is expressed by an innumerable multitude of conscious entities at work. It is this individualization, as it were, that gives to these forces a consciousness and a certain play of freedom, and this is what makes all the difference in action. It is in this respect that the occult system is an absolutely indispensable complement to spiritual action.
The spiritual action is direct, but it may not be immediate (anyway, thats my experience). Sri Aurobindo said that with the supramental presence, it becomes immediate and I have experienced this. But this would then mean that the supramental Power automatically commands all these intermediaries, whereas if its not present, even the highest spiritual power would need a specialized knowledge to act in this realm, a knowledge equivalent to an occult or initiatory knowledge of all these realms. This is why I told X, Well, you taught me many things while you were here. There is always something to learn.
0 1958-12-15 - tantric mantra - 125,000, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
At the new moon, when I felt very down, he gave me the first tantric mantraa mantra to Durga. For a period of 41 days, I must repeat it 125,000 times and go every morning to the Temple, stand before Parvati and recite this mantra within me for at least one hour. Then I must go to the sanctuary of Shiva and recite another mantra for half an hour. Practically speaking, I have to repeat constantly within me the mantra to Durga in a silent concentration, whatever I may be doing on the outside. In these conditions, it is difficult to think of you and this has created a slight conflict in me, but I believe that your Grace is acting through Swami and through Durga, Whom I am invoking all the time I remember what you told me about the necessity for intermediaries and I am obeying Swami unreservedly.
Mother, things are far from being what they were the first time in Rameswaram, and I am living through certain moments that are hell the enemy seems to have been unleashed with an extraordinary violence. It comes in waves, and after it recedes, I am literally SHATTEREDphysically, mentally and vitally drained. This morning, while going to the temple, I lived through one of these moments. All this suffering that suddenly sweeps down upon me is horrible. Yes, I had the feeling of being BACKED UP AGAINST A WALL, exactly as in your vision I was up against a wall. I was walking among these immense arcades of sculptured granite and I could see myself walking, very small, all alone, alone, ravaged with pain, filled with a nameless despair, for nowhere was there a way out. The sea was nearby and I could have thrown myself into it; otherwise, there was only the sanctuary of Parvati but there was no more Africa to flee to, everything closed in all around me, and I kept repeating, Why? Why? This much suffering was truly inhuman, as if my last twenty years of nightmare were crashing down upon me. I gritted my teeth and went to the sanctuary to say my mantra. The pain in me was so strong that I broke into a cold sweat and almost fainted. Then it subsided. Yet even now I feel completely battered.
0 1958 12 - Floor 1, young girl, we shall kill the young princess - black tent, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Two or three days after I retired to my room upstairs,1 early in the night I fell into a very heavy sleep and found myself out of the body much more materially than I do usually. This degree of density in which you can see the material surroundings exactly as they are. The part that was out seemed to be under a spell and only half conscious. When I found myself at the first floor where everything was absolutely black, I wanted to go up again, but then I discovered that my hand was held by a young girl Whom I could not see in the darkness but Whose contact was very familiar. She pulled me by the hand telling me laughingly, No, come, come down with me, we shall kill the young princess. I could not understand what she meant by this young princess and, rather unwillingly, I followed her to see what it was. Arriving in the anteroom which is at the top of the staircase leading to the ground floor, my attention was drawn in the midst of all this total obscurity to the white figure of Kamala2 standing in the middle of the passage between the hall and Sri Aurobindos room. She was as it were in full light while everything else was black. Then I saw on her face such an expression of intense anxiety that to comfort her I said, I am coming back. The sound of my voice shook off from me the semi-trance in which I was before and suddenly I thought, Where am I going? and I pushed away from me the dark figure Who was pulling me and in Whom, while she was running down the steps, I recognized a young girl Who lived with Sri Aurobindo and me for many years and died five years back. This girl during her life was under the most diabolical influence. And then I saw very distinctly (as through the walls of the staircase) down below a small black tent which could scarcely be perceived in the surrounding darkness and standing in the middle of the tent the figure of a man, head and face shaved (like the sannyasin or the Buddhist monks) covered from head to foot with a knitted outfit following tightly the form of his body which was tall and slim. No other cloth or garment could give an indication as to Who he could be. He was standing in front of a black pot placed on a dark red fire which was throwing its reddish glow on him. He had his right arm stretched over the pot, holding between two fingers a thin gold chain which looked like one of mine and was unnaturally visible and bright. Shaking gently the chain he was chanting some words which translated in my mind, She must die the young princess, she must pay for all she has done, she must die the young princess.
Then I suddenly realized that it was I the young Princess and as I burst into laughter, I found myself awake in my bed.
0 1959-01-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In this regard, perhaps you know that X is the tenth in the line of Bhaskaraya (my spelling of this name is perhaps not correct), the great Tantric of Whom you had a vision, Who could comm and the coming of Kali along with all her warriors. It is from X that Swami received his initiation.
Your last letter gave us great pleasure, knowing that you have finally recovered physically. But we deeply hope that you will not again take up the countless activities that formerly consumed all your timeso many people come to you egoistically, for prestige, to be able to say that they are on familiar terms with you. You know this, of course
0 1959-01-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was waiting to answer your letter of the 21st until the Friday and Saturday you mentioned had gone by. And then I felt that you were returning the Aphorisms, so I waited a bit more. I have just received them along with your letter of the 23rd, but I have not yet looked at them. Besides, if you intend returning for the February darshan, I think it would be preferable for us to revise the Whole book together. There will not be very much work on my side since the Wednesday and Friday classes were discontinued in the beginning of December, and I still do not know when they will resume.3 Right now, I am translating the Aphorisms all alone and it seems to go quickly and well. This could also be revised and the book on the Dhammapada prepared for publication.
For the time being, I am going downstairs only in the mornings at 6 for the balcony darshan and I immediately come back up without seeing anyone then in the afternoons, I go down once more at about 3 to take my bath and at 4:30 I come back up again. I do not yet know what will happen next month. I shall have to find some way to meet you so that we can work together I am going to think it over.
0 1959-03-10 - vital dagger, vital mass, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I, Who know the consequences of these things, stopped him just in time I gave him a blow. Then I had enough of all this and it was over, I cleaned the place out. It was almost a physical cleaning, for I had my hands clasped together (I was in a semitrance) and I threw them apart in an abrupt movement, left and right, powerfully, as if to sweep something away, and frrt! immediately everything was gone.
But had that not happened I was watching, not exactly with curiosity, but in order to learnto learn what kind of atmosphere people live in! And it is ALWAYS like that! They are always pestered by HORDES of little formations that are absolutely swarming and disgusting, each one making its nasty little suggestion.
--
When you see them, oh! its suffocating. When youre in contact with that Really, you wonder how anyone can brea the in such an atmosphere. And yet people CONSTANTLY live in that atmosphere! They live in it. Only when they rise above are they NOT in it. Or else there are those Who are entirely below; but those are the toys of these things, and their reactions are sometimes not only unexpected but absolutely dreadfulbecause they are puppets in the hands of these things.
Those Who rise above, Who enter into a slightly intellectual region, can see all this from above; they can look down at it all, keep their heads above and breathe; but those Who live in this realm
Sri Aurobindo calls this realm the intermediate zone, a zone in which, he says, you can have all the experiences you wish if you enter into it. But it isnt (laughing) very advisable!and I understand why! I had that experience because I had just read what Sri Aurobindo says on this subject in a letter in this latest book, On Yoga; I wanted to see for myself what it was. Ah, I understood!
0 1959-03-26 - Lord of Death, Lord of Falsehood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Behind the Titan attacking us particularly now, there is something else. This Titan has been delegated by someone else. He has been there since my birth, was born with me. I felt him when I was very young, but only gradually, as I became conscious of myself, did I understand Who he was and what was behind him.
This Titan has been specially sent to attack this body, but he cant do it directly, so he uses people in my entourage. It is something fated: all those around me, Who are close to me, and especially those capable of love, have been attacked by him; a few have succumbed, such as that girl in my entourage Who was absorbed by him. He follows me like a shadow, and each time there is the least little opening in someone near me, he is there.
The power of this Titan comes from an Asura. There are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the other two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical bodythey have been intimately associated with my life. The story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount The Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I dont know what has become of him.1 As for the other, the Lord of Falsehood, the one Who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted, but he found it disgusting!
At times he calls himself the Lord of Nations. It is he Who sets all wars in motion, and only by thwarting his plans could the last war be won This one does not want to be converted, not at all. He wants neither the physical transformation nor the supramental world, for that would spell his end. Besides, he knows We talk to each other; beyond all this, we have our relationship. For after all, you see (laughing), I am his mother! One day he told me, I know you will destroy me, but meanwhile, I will create all the havoc possible.
This Asura of Falsehood is the one Who delegated the Titan that is always near me. He chose the most powerful Titan there is on earth and sent him specially to attack this body. So even if one manages to enchain or kill this Titan, it is likely that the Lord of Falsehood will delegate another form, and still another, and still another, in order to achieve his aim.
In the end, only the Supramental will have the power to destroy it. When the hour comes, all this will disappear, without any need to do anything.
0 1959-05-19 - Ascending and Descending paths, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In fact, you can immediately see the difference between those Who have a mantra and those Who dont. With those Who have no mantra, even if they have a strong habit of meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and vague. Whereas the japa imparts to those Who practice it a kind of precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. They become galvanized, as it were.
Original English.
0 1959-05-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have no illusions, and I do not at all suppose that elsewhere my life may at last be fulfilled. No, I know that this Whole life is cursed, but it may as well be truly cursed. If the Divine does not want to give me his Love, may he give me his curse. But not this life between two worlds. Or if I am too hardened, may he break me. But not this tepidness, this approximation.
I am not really bad, Mother, but I can no longer bear this life without love. That is all.
There is someone here Who could have saved me, Whom I could have loved. Oh, it has nothing to do with all those things you might imagine! My soul loves her soul. It is something very serene. We have known each other for five years, and I had never even dreamed of calling it love. But all the outer circumstances are against us. And I do not want to turn anyone away from you. Anyway, if I sink into the depths of the pit, or so I tell myself, it is no reason to drag someone else along with me. So this too is one more reason for me to leave. I cannot continue suffocating all alone in my corner. (It is useless to ask her name, I will say nothing.)
You are imposing a new ordeal on me by asking me to go to Rameswaram. For you, I have accepted. But I shall go there sheathed in my sturdiest armor and I will not yield, because I know that it is always to be begun again. I do not want to become a great Tantric or whatever else it may be. I want only to love. And since I cannot love, I am leaving. I will arrive in Rameswaram at 2 in the morning, and will leave again by the 11 oclock train.
--
Only someone Who loves you and has the knowledge can find the true solution to the problem. X1 fulfills these conditions excellently. Go to him and simply be what you are, without blackening nor embellishing, with the sincerity and simplicity of a child. He knows your soul and its aspiration; speak to him of your physical life and of your need for space, solitude, untamed nature, the simple and free life. He will understand and, in his wisdom, will see the best thing to do.
And what he decides will be done.
0 1959-05-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
So there. I can find no solution. X will not understand, and I will not say anything to him. But I obey you because everything is futile and there is too much pain in this world, and also someone in me needs you, someone Who loves you in his own way.
Signed: Satprem
--
I did not utter the words that you heard I wanted to speak to you of my experience during the night, but I was paralyzed because I clearly felt that you no longer understood me. As soon as I received your letter, I concentrated on you in an effort to help you, and when night fell, just at the hour I enter into contact with X, I called for his helpwhereupon he sent me this little Kali Whom he had already sent once before. So I went to your house, I took you in my arms and pressed you tightly to my heart to keep you as sheltered as possible from blows, and I let Kali do her warrior dance against this titan Who is always trying to possess you, creating this rebelliousness in you. She must have at least partially succeeded in her work, because very early in the morning the titan went away somewhat discomfited, but while leaving, he flung this at me as he went by: You will regret it, for you would have had less trouble if he had left. I flung his suggestion back in his face with a laugh and told him, Take that, along with all the rest of your ugly person! I have no need of it! And the atmosphere cleared up.
I wanted to tell you all this, but I couldnt because you were still far away from me and it would have seemed like boasting. Also the misunderstanding created by the distance made you hear other words than those I uttered.
0 1959-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In any event, since I left Pondicherry, I have been living like a kind of robot (it began in the train); I am empty, void of the least feeling for Whomever it may be. I keep going by a kind of acquired momentum, but actually I feel completely anesthetized.
Excuse my handwriting. I am writing to you lying on the floor of the dharamshala2 near Xs house, for the hut meant for me is not yet ready.
Suddenly, last evening, X went furiously on the warpath against the Indian Congress3 and with an irrefutable tone, like someone Who knows, began making very interesting predictions.
Before five months are over (in September, October or November), Pakistan will attack India with the help or the complicity or the military resources of the United States. And at about the same time, China will attack India because of the Dalai Lama, under the pretext that India is supporting the Dalai Lama and that thousands of Tibetan refugees are escaping into India to carry on anti-Chinese activities. Then America will offer its support to India against China and then, said X, We shall see what will be the political policy of the Congress Party, which pretends to be unaligned with any bloc. If India accepts American aid, there will be no more Pakistan but rather American troops to prevent conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, and a single government for both countries. I pointed out to X that this sounded very much like a world war
--
As for the emptiness you feel (which perhaps is already better): to those Who complained of this sensation of inner emptiness, Sri Aurobindo always said that it is a very good thing; it is the sign that they are going to be filled with something better and truer.
I have carefully noted Xs predictions.
Certainly his political rage is not only understandable but justified. However, when one begins looking at things from the external viewpoint of the manifestation, they are not as simple as that. I cannot speak of all this in detail, but as an example I can tell you that here in Pondicherry, those Who are maneuvering (and not without some hope) to oust the Congress are our worst enemies, the enemy of all that is disinterested and spiritual, and if they come to power, they would be capable of anything in their hate.
For all these world events, I always leave it to the Divine vision and wisdom, and I say to the Supreme: Lord, may Thy Will be done.
0 1959-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
1) X spoke to me of the Vedic times when a single emperor or sage ruled the entire world with the help of governors; then these governors gradually became independent kings, and conflicts were born. So I asked him what was going to happen after this next war and whether the world would be better. He replied as follows: Yes, great sages like Sri Aurobindo Who are wandering now in their subtle bodies will appear. Some sages may take the physical body of political leaders in the West. It will be the end of ignorant atomic machines and the beginning of a new age with great sages leading the world. So it seems that Xs vision links up with Sri Aurobindos prediction for 1967.
He did not give me any further details about this war, except to say that the countries which will suffer the most will be the countries of the North and the East, and he cited Burma, Japan, China and Russia. He said rather categorically that Russia would be swept away and that America would triumph.
--
3) X has not yet begun his work with me nor for you, as he has been unwell until today. One evening, he made a very beautiful reflection concerning you and your mantra, but it is inexpressible in words, it was above all the tone in which he said, Who, Who, is there a single person in the world Who can repeat like that TRIOMPHE TOI MAHIMA MAHIMA? etc. And three or four times he repeated your mantra with such an expression
He has not yet done what he plans to do with your mantra in his puja, for he has been unwell and had to interrupt his pujas. But now he is better.
0 1959-06-13a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have received your last two letters of the 10th and 11th. I told X what you wrote about this trip to France and that your finances are in an almost desperate state. He replied with perfect assurance, Soon it will increase, very soon it will change. I am obviously hesitant to accept your generous offer and I do not know what I should do. I had never thought of returning to France, except in a distant future. I dont know why X told me that I should return there, except perhaps because he felt Who my mother is. I know that she is sad, that she believes me lost to her and thinks she will die without seeing me again. It would surely be a great joy to her. But other than that, I have no desire to go there, for each time I go to France, I feel like I am entering a prison. Naturally I would be happy for my mothers joy; she is a great soul, but is this reason enough?
Sunday, 14th
--
Lele: the tantric guru Whom Sri Aurobindo met in 1908 and Who gave him mental silence and Nirvana.
***
0 1959-06-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I had said nothing to X about these various dreams before he told me the story of my last three existences: three times I committed suicide the first by fire, the second by hanging, and the third by throwing myself into the void. During the first of these last three existences, I was married to a very good woman, but for some reason I abandoned my wife and I was wandering here and there in search of something. Then I met a sannyasi Who wanted to make me his disciple, but I could not make up my mind, I was neither this side nor that side, whereupon my wife came to me and pleaded with me to take her back. Apparently I rejected herso she threw herself into the fire. Horror-stricken, I followed her, throwing myself into the fire in turn. That was when I created a connection with certain beings [of the other worlds] and I fell under their power. For two other lives, under the influence of these beings, the same drama was repeated with a few variations.
During the second of these last three existences, I was married to the same woman Whom I again abandoned under the influence of the same monk, and I again remained between two worlds wandering here and there. Again my wife came to plead with me and again I pushed her away. She hung herself, and I hung myself in turn.
During my last existence, the monk succeeded in making me a sannyasi, and when my wife came to plead with me, I told her, Too late, now I am a sannyasi. So she threw herself into the void, and horror-stricken by the sudden revelation of all these dramas and of my wifes goodness (for it seems she was a great soul), I threw myself in turn into the void.
--
X gave me a new mantra. My body is exhausted from too much nervous tension. I am living in a kind of cellar with four inches of filth on the floor and walls, and two openings, one onto the street of the bazaar the other onto a dilapidated courtyard with a well. On my right lives a madwoman Who screams half the day. There is only my mantra which burns almost constantly in my heart, and Who knows what hope that some day the future will be happy and reconciled. There is also Sujata and you.
Your child,
0 1959-07-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This handwritten note bore only this word and the date. Kalki is the name of the last Avatar Who comes on a white winged horse to destroy the 'barbarians' (yavan) at the end of the Iron Age or the Kali Yuga, which is the period we are now passing through. His appearance marks the return of the Age of Truth, or the Satya Yuga.
7.9.59
0 1959-07-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A moment ago I barely found the strength not to kill myself. Destiny has repeated itself once again, but this time it was not I Who rejected her, as in past existences, it is she Who rejected me: Too late. For a moment, I thought I was going to go crazy too, so much pain did I have then finally I said, May Thy Will be done, (that of the Supreme Lord) and I kept repeating, Thy Grace is there, even in the greatest suffering. But I am broken, rather like a living dead man. So be happy, for I will never wear the white robe that Guruji gave me.
You will understand that I do not have the strength to come to see you. My only strength is not to rebel, my only strength is to believe in the Grace in the face of everything. I believe I have too much grief in my heart to rebel against anything at all. I seem to have a kind of great pity for this world.
0 1959-07-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, my Whole soul writes you this. I swear there is in me a single great need of Love, beauty, nobility, purity. And we would work for you together in joy at last.1
Your anxious child,
0 1959-10-06 - Sri Aurobindos abode, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I remained in that state for two full days, two days of absolute felicity. And Sri Aurobindo was with me the Whole time, the Whole timewhen I walked, he walked with me, when I sat down, he sat next to me. On the day of August 15th, too, he remained there constantly during the darshan. But Who was aware of it? A fewone or twofelt something. But Who saw?No one.
And I showed all these people to Sri Aurobindo, this Whole field of work, and asked him WHEN this other world, the real one that is there, so near, would come to take the place of our world of falsehood. Not ready. That was all he replied. Not ready.
Sri Aurobindo gave me two days of thistotal bliss. But all the same, by the end of the second day I realized that I could not continue to remain there, for the work was not advancing. The work must be done in the body; the realization must be attained here in this physical world, for otherwise it is not complete. So I withdrew from that world and set to work here again.
--
It is similar with this japa: an imperceptible little change, and one can pass from a more or less mechanical, more or less efficient and real japa, to the true japa full of power and light. I even wondered if this difference is what the tantrics call the power of the japa. For example, the other day I was down with a cold. Each time I opened my mouth, there was a spasm in the throat and I coughed and coughed. Then a fever came. So I looked, I saw where it was coming from, and I decided that it had to stop. I got up to do my japa as usual, and I started walking back and forth in my room. I had to apply a certain will. Of course, I could do my japa in trance, I could walk in trance while repeating the japa, because then you feel nothing, none of all the bodys drawbacks. But the work has to be done in the body! So I got up and started doing my japa. Then, with each word pronounced the Light, the full Power. A power that heals everything. I began the japa tired, ill, and I came out of it refreshed, rested, cured. So those Who tell me they come out of it exhausted, contracted, emptied, it means that they are not doing it in the true way.
I understand why certain tantrics advise saying the japa in the heart center. When one applies a certain enthusiasm, when each word is said with a warmth of aspiration, then everything changes. I could feel this difference in myself, in my own japa.
0 1959-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
2) X spoke to me of the Ashrams financial difficulties and said I shall tell you the secret why there are such difficulties. I think he is going to speak to me today or tomorrow. In any case, he told me that he was working (I am preparing) to change these conditions, and he asked me if there had been any improvement as yet. I replied that I did not believe the situation had changed very much. He spoke as well of certain people in the Ashram, but I will tell you about this in person. He had a rather amusing way of speaking about people, people Who pretend to worship the Mother but Who keep their mind as a dustbin!
7) X wants to send me back to Pondicherry this Sunday (Sunday the 18th, arriving Monday the 19th morning). He says it is useless for me now to remain here any longer since his house is not ready and he can do nothing. But, he said, I will have you come to my house for 3 months and I shall give you a training by which you can know Past, Present and Future, and have the same qualifications as me!
0 1960-03-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Only a few days ago, on the morning of the 29th, I had one of those experiences that mark ones life. It happened upstairs in my room. I was doing my japa, walking up and down with my eyes wide open, when suddenly Krishna camea gold Krishna, all golden, in a golden light that filled the Whole room. I was walking, but I could not even see the windows or the rug any longer, for this golden light was everywhere with Krishna at its center. And it must have lasted at least fifteen minutes. He was dressed in those same clothes in which he is normally portrayed when he dances. He was all light, all dancing: You see, I will be there this evening during the Darshan.1 And suddenly, the chair I use for darshan came into the room! Krishna climbed up onto it, and his eyes twinkled mischievously, as if to say, I will be there, you see, and therell be no room for you.
When I came down that evening for distribution,2 at first I was annoyed. I had said that I didnt want anybody in the hall, precisely because I wanted to establish an atmosphere of concentration, the immobility of the Spirit but there were at least thirty people in there, those Who had decorated the hall, thirty of them stirring, stirring about, a mass of little vibrations. And before I could even say scat I had hardly taken my seatsomeone put the tray of medals on my lap and they started filing past.
But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no onenothing. I was gone. There was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each other. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?Nothing, no one, gone. Only later, afterwards, did I see what had happened, for everything had disappeared, even the higher mind that understands and organizes things (by understand I mean contain, which contains things). That also was gone. And this lasted the entire distribution. Only when that [the body] had gone back upstairs to the room did the consciousness of what is me return.
0 1960-03-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Publisher and friend are here one in telling you that LOrpailleur is a beautiful book Whose richness and force have struck me even more this time than before when I read the first version. I cannot tell you how much your Job is my brotherin his darkness as in his light. The joy, the wild, irrepressible joy that furtively yearns and at times bursts forth, embracing all, this joy at the heart of the book burns the reader for a few, in any case, Who are prepared to be inflamed. In the end, I cant say if LOrpailleur will or will not be noticed, if the critics will or will not bestow an article, a comment, an echo upon it, if bookstores will or will not sell it (poor orpailleur!). But what I know is that for a few readers2, 3, 10 perhapsyour book will be the cry that will rip them from their sleep forever. To your song, another song in themselves will respond. Where, how shall this concert finish? Who knowsanything is possible!
My words are a bit disjointed but Im not in the mood to give an articulate discourse. Which is a way of saying, once again, how happy I amand grateful.
0 1960-05-16, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In the early part of the century, I wrote Prayers and Meditations, and I too spoke of Him; but I wrote that with all my aspiration, all my sincerity (at least with all the sincerity of the conscious parts of my being) and I locked it up in a drawer so that no one would see it. It was Sri Aurobindo Who later asked me to publish it, for it could be useful If I knew then, fifty years ago, what I know now, I would have been crushed! All this shame, all this unworthiness
After all, its good to know gradually, good to have some illusionsnot for the sake of illusions but as a necessary step along the way.
--
I spent the Whole day yesterday trying to understand this experience.
And in that kind of physical eternity (which lasted two and a half hoursits a long time for an experience), I was aware of something missing, something not there: the joy of the consciousness. Because throughout my life I have developed the habit of being conscious of everything, always, at each second. And the joy of the consciousness was not there. So I thanked the Grace that made me see that this kind of nirvana was quite simply physical tamas.2
0 1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
At times, I feel that Ill never get over the difficulty. We are besieged by this enormous world of hostile forcesoceans of forces, churning and combining and submerging each other in gigantic pralayas,1 then again regrouping and combining. When you see that, it feels as if you had to be the Divine Himself to get over the difficulty. Precisely so! (And its the hostile forces Who help you to see this, its their role.) You have TO BE THE DIVINE, that is the solution, that is the true divine purity.
***
--
Well, I tried hard but I couldnt really find the way. At times, I almost seemed to have it, a mere nothing would have been enough; it was just a matter of getting the knack (and at heart, this is what Power is all aboutto get the knack, to suddenly seize upon the means, the right vibration, what in India is called siddhi). Well, after his departure, all of a sudden it came. It happened while I was doing my japa, while I was walking up and down my room As if I were holding all that in my armsit was so concrete and lifting it up towards the Light, along with this ascending OM, rising from the very depths, OM!and I was carrying all these people, and it was spreading forth, PHYSICALLY spreading, and I was carrying the earth, I was carrying the Whole universe, but in such a tangible, concrete wayall towards the Supreme Lord.
And this was not the invisible power: it was concrete, it was tangible, it was MATERIAL.
0 1960-05-24 - supramental flood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
These experiences are always absolute, as long as they last; then, through certain signs that I know (I am accustomed to it), I notice that the body consciousness begins closing up again. Or rather, somethingevidently a Supreme Wisdomdecides its sufficient for this time and that the body has had enough. It ought not to break, which is why certain precautions are taken. So this comes in several little stages that I know quite well. The final one is always a bit unpleasant because my body gets into rather peculiar positions as a result of the work. As its only a sort of machine, towards the end I have some difficulty straightening my knees, for example, or opening my fingers I think they even make a noise, like something forced into one position Whose life has become purely spontaneous and mechanical. There are plenty of people like that, plenty, Who enter into trance and then can no longer get out by themselves; they get themselves into a certain position and someone has to free them. This has never happened to me; I have always managed to extricate myself. But yesterday evening, the experience lasted a very long time. There was even a little cracking at the end, as when people have rheumatism.
And during all this time, approximately three hours, the consciousness was completely, completely different. It was here, however; it was not outside the earth, it was on earth, but it was completely differenteven the body consciousness was different. And what remained was very mechanical; it was a body, but it could just as well have been anything. All this power of consciousness that for more than seventy years Ive gradually pushed into each of the bodys cells so that each cell could become conscious (and it goes on constantly, constantly), all this seemed to have withdrawn there only remained one almost lifeless thing. However, I could raise myself up from my bed and even drink a glass of water, but it was all so bizarre. And when I went back to bed, it took nearly forty-five minutes for the body to regain its normal state. Only after I had entered into another type of samadhi2 and again come out of it did my consciousness fully return. It is the first time I have had an experience of this kind.
--
It was as vast as the universe, a continuous movement the movement of manifestation of something which was EVERYTHING at once, a single Whole. There was no division. And such a variety of colors, vibrations, powersextraordinary! It was one single thing, and everything was within it.
The three Supreme Principles were very clearly there: Existence, Consciousness (an active, realizing consciousness) and Ananda. A universal vastness that kept going on and on and on
--
And of course, the Whole ordinary and higher mind (as well as the physical mind, it goes without saying, for that must be abolished before going into trance), everything here in the head, above the head, around the headabsolutely immobile.
After all that, towards the end of the night, at two in the morning, only a kind of faint suggestion was left: How can this statewhich I knew in trance, in samadhi, and which necessitates lying downbecome constant in a physical body which moves about? There is something to discover there. And what form will it take? For in my consciousness, you see, it is constantly like that, this universal flood, but the problem is IN THE BODY: its the problem of the Force in its most material form.
--
This experience last night also enabled me to understand what X had felt during one of our meditations. He had explained his experience by way of saying that I was this mystic tree Whose roots plunge into the Supreme and Whose branches spread forth over the world,3 and he said that one of these branches had entered into himand it had been a unique experience. He had said, this is the Mother.
And now I understand that what he had seen and translated by this Vedic image was that kind of perpetual flood.
0 1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I know it. I know that this consciousness of the form exists since I have actually gone out of it. Once, long back, I was in a so-called cataleptic state, and after awhile, while still in this state, the body began living again2; that is, it was capable of speaking and even moving (it was Theon Who gave me this training). The body managed to get up and move. And yet, everything had gone out of it!
Once everything had gone out, it naturally became cold, but the body consciousness manages to draw a little energy from the air, from this or that And I spoke in that state. I spoke I spoke very well, and besides, I recounted all I was seeing elsewhere.
--
I think they do it here (apart from entirely sanitary considerations in the case of people Who have died from nasty diseases), here in India, mainly because they are very afraid of all these little entities that come from desires, impulsesthings which are dispersed in the air and which make ghosts and all kinds of things. All desires, all attachments, all those things are like pieces that break off (each one goes its own way, you see), then these pieces gain strength in the surrounding atmosphere, and when they can fasten on to someone, they vampirize him. Then they keep on trying to satisfy their desires.
The world, the terrestrial atmosphere, is full of filth.
--
I know one person, a boy Who died here, Who was burned before he had left! He had a weak heart, and not enough care was taken that is, they probably should not have operated on him. He was our engineer. He died in the hospital. Not a serious operation, an appendicitis, but his heart could not take up its natural movement.
But as he was accustomed to going out of his body, he didnt know! He even used to make experimentshe would go out, circle around in his room, see his body from outside, observe the difference between the subtle physical and the material physical, etc. So he didnt know. And its only when they burned his body
--
And whenever we used to have meetings to decide on the construction of something or on repairs to be made, for example, I always felt him there and he influenced those Who were present.
He wanted to live again; I managed to give him the opportunity. He was very conscious; the child isnt yet so.
--
It was at Tlemcen, in Algeria. While Mother was in trance, Theon caused the thread which linked Mother to her body to break through a movement of anger. He was angry because Mother, Who was in a region where she saw the 'mantra of life,' refused to tell him the mantra. Faced with the enormity of the result of his anger Theon got hold of himself, and it took all Mother's force and all Theon's occult science to get Mother back into her bodywhich created a kind of very painful friction at the moment of re-entry, perhaps the type of friction that makes new born children cry out.
***
0 1960-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is even good for people Whove never been in trance to repeat a mantra (or a word, a prayer) before going to sleep. But the words must have a life of their ownby this I dont mean an intellectual meaning, nothing of the kind, but rather a vibration. And this has an extraordinary effect on the body, it starts vibrating, vibrating, vibrating and so calm, you let yourself go, like falling off to sleep. And the body vibrates more and more, more and more, more and more, and you drift off.
Such is the cure for tamas.
Its tamas that gives you a bad sleep. There are two kinds of bad sleep that which makes you heavy and leaden, as if the result of all your effort the day before were wasted, and that which exhausts you, as if you had spent the Whole time fighting. And Ive observed that if you cut your sleep up into sections (it becomes a habit), the nights get better. In other words, you must be able to come back to your normal consciousness and your normal aspiration at certain intervals, come back to the call of your consciousness But you must not use an alarm clock. When in trance, its not good to be jolted.
Just as you are drifting off, you can make a formation and say, I shall wake up at such-and-such time (children do it very easily).
0 1960-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have to see some fellow again Whom I saw yesterday. But I told him to come at 11 oclock. So if I leave here at 10:55, that will give me enough time.
They brought these people to Prosperity to introduce them to me. You know, I had precisely the impression that they feed only on banknotes! (Mother laughs) It makes you gray, oh! And dry like dead wood.
They came to see their son (son, son-in-law, nephew anyway, its the same person) about some businesssome money matter. Then one of them asked to see me. I thought they would simply send some womannot at all: the Whole group, face to face and in a circle, and they began lecturing me on business! So I had some fun. Once they had their say (they werent moving, they were planted there), I told them, Listen, since you are here, it must be for SOMETHING! And then I gave them a lecture. But just imagine, one of them was so shaken that he asked to see me again this morning. The one Who was shaken wore a handsome pink turban.
So I said, All right, let him come.
--
Hmm! But life is like that. Physical life is like that for everyone. This feeling of it turning round and round and round and round and its the same for people, objects, countries, the Whole world.
Something changes, of course, but its so phew! I mean, at the speed its going, it will take us millions of years to make any perceptible progress. We might just as well say its not moving.
--
It gives me the impression of something like Yes, thats it, like a cavemanOh (Mother speaks mockingly), surely one of the cave artists or poets or writers! The intellectual life of the caves, I mean! But the cave happens to be low and when youre in it, you are like this (Mother stoops over), but the Whole time you want to stand up straight. That makes you furious. Thats exactly the feeling it gives menot a cave meant for a man standing on his two feet; its a cave for a lion or for for any four-legged animal.
Its symbolic. Im speaking symbolically.
0 1960-06-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But when a question is put to me, it comes coated with all the mental atmosphere of Whoever is asking the question. And this coating is often a mere reflectionmuch of the life has been removed.
The same thing occurs, there is the same difference, when I say something and when I see it (for example, when I look at one of those essential problems that will be solved only when the world changes). When I look at that in silence, there is a power of life and truthwhich evaporates when its put into words. It becomes diminished, impoverished and of course distorted. When you write or speak, the experience disintegrates, its inevitable.
0 1960-07-12 - Mothers Vision - the Voice, the ashram a tiny part of myself, the Mothers Force, sparkling white light compressed - enormous formation of negative vibrations - light in evil, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I heard the Voice and awoke with the feeling of this Power, this Light, this Force of realization concentrated here which sets everything in motion (as always, it is always the same, a Power in motion). It was a dazzling white light. But then, what I found funny was that there I was, quite in my natural state, and this, the Ashram, was a tiny, tiny part of myself. And throughout the Whole experience, it remained like thata very tiny part of myself. Everything else was I cant say deconcentrated, but an entirely general, overall activity, as it normally is every night. And I saw the Ashram quite clearlyit was something special, made for special reasons, but whereas I seemed to have an immense body, that was very small, very small. It went on for an hour. Thats what I found amusing; the other things just happen, and they may be interesting, but this was so spontaneous; I was watching it (I dont know where my head was), I was looking down from above so tiny, so tiny.
What was me was up above, and the Ashram was It began just here (the navel) and went that way (downwards), and it was encircled, to show that it was a special formationencircled in the inconscience of the terrestrial creation. And I was everything else, with the usual vibrations of power and light. And then one current and another current and another were passing into it, into this formation, and they kept going in and in and in, accumulating. They kept going in, and yet they did not come out, they did not leave. It was not an undulatory movement, but rather a pulsating movementit had no beginning, it didnt go out, and yet it kept moving. Its very difficult to describe.
--
Its form was elongated, slanting downwards (it always has this form). At the top it looked like a head, then the lines disappeared down below. It had no openings. And then, it was surrounded by various dark sheaths, a very dark purple which is the color of protection. A sparkling light was entering into itit kept entering, but without making any holes. It passed right through everything, through the purplethrough everything. It passed through and entered inside, where there were sparklings of every color, like a cascade. There are always these cascades of forcesimilar to a cascading stream Whose waters neither flow on nor disappear, but accumulate: an accumulation of energies, a condensation. And they accumulate without taking up any more space through a kind of compression. And inside, its moving, vibrating, vibrating, vibrating, it keeps coming and comingyou dont know where it comes from, but it keeps coming and accumulating.
It was a force with a sparkling white light at its center, the light which is the force of the Divine Mother, and as soon as it was well packed and concentrated inside, or condensed, it took on all the colorsvibrations of every color Like a materialization these colors were like a materialization of the Divine Force when it enters matter. (Just as matter is a condensation of energy, well, this seemed to be a condensation of Divine Force. Thats really the impression it gave.)
0 1960-07-23 - The Flood and the race - turning back to guide and save amongst the torrents - sadhana vs tamas and destruction - power of giving and offering - Japa, 7 lakhs, 140000 per day, 1 crore takes 20 years, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Something interesting happened last night exactly between ten and eleven. I was in some kind of vehicle. I didnt see the vehicle but I was in it. Someone in front of me was driving, though I could only see his back; I didnt bother about Who it washe was simply the one meant to do it.
It was as if the doors of destruction had been flung open. Floodsfloods as vast as an oceanwere rushing down onto something the earth? A formidable current pouring down at an insane speed, with an unstoppable power. It was brackish waternot transparent, but brackish. And it was imperative to reach a certain spot BEFORE the water. Had the water reached there ahead of me, nothing could have been done. Whereas if I got there first (I say I, but it was not I with this body), if I got to the other side before the water, I would be completely safe; and from this safe position, I would be able, I would have a chance to help those left behind.
And this vehicle was going faster than the flood (I saw and felt it by its motion)a formidable flood, but the vehicle was going still faster. It was so wonderful. In places there were some especially difficult and dangerous spots, but I ALWAYS got there before the water, just before the water barred the way. And we kept going and going and going. Then, with a final effort (there was no effort, really, it was willed), with a final push, we made it to the other side and the water came rushing just behind! It rushed down at a fantastic speed. We had made it. Then, just on the other side, it changed color. It was it changed in color to a predominant blue, this powerful blue which is the force, the organizing force in the most material world. So there we were, and the vehicle stopped. And then, after having been looking straight ahead the Whole time we were speeding along, I turned around and said, Ah, now I can start helping those Who are behind.
Here, Ill draw you a little sketch:
--
I turned around and saw all this water rushing down, and I thought, Now lets see if we can do something here. There was someone behind Who interested me, someone or somethingit was still something; it was very likable and had something of the blue color that was here on the other side. Not really individuals, but more like beings representative of something that was following me quite closely. When I was there, it also was there, but it could not keep up, it kept losing groundas my speed increased, its decreased. It could not keep up. But it interested me in a special way. Oh, hes so close (he or it); he might just make it, I thought. And at that moment, I saw that all this destructive will with its instrument of water, symbolically water, had rushed past and was spreading out everywhere. But there was still a chance of saving all those Who were along this path. And thats immediately what I thought of, it was my first wish: Lets see if they can still get across, if I can manage to get them across. I remembered some especially dangerous spots (while speeding past, I had remarked, Oh, here we might still be able to do this, there that could still be donemy consciousness moved at the same speed, and I noted everything along the way), and once I was firmly there on the other side, I started sending back messages.
Down below, the water was having a grand time; it was it was hopeless. But here, along this path, there was still a hope, even even after the water had passed; I probably had a certain power at my disposal to help others cross these fissured places. But because I woke up, I didnt see what it was. So that stopped everything. Probably because I woke up rather abruptly, I could not see what it meant.
--
Its more and more a universal yoga the Whole earth and it is like that day and night, when I walk and when I speak and when I eat. Its constantly like that. As if the Whole earth were its like kneading dough to make it rise.
But when I read his Yoga of Self-Perfection and see simply what we are phew! What yeast we would need to make all that rise!
0 1960-07-26 - Mothers vision - looking up words in the subconscient, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Coming at the end of the night as it did, it means that its an exploration in some part or another of a subconscious mental activity. And you can make so many discoveries there it is unbelievable! But its lovely. And rarely unpleasant. There was a time when it was very unpleasant, oppressive, full of effort and resistance. I would want to go somewhere, but it would be impossible; I toiled and struggled, but everything would go wrong the straight paths would suddenly plunge into an abyss, and Id have to cross the abyss. For years it was like that. Just recently, I looked back over this Whole period But now it is over. Now its something its lovely, its enjoyable, its a little it has a childlike simplicity.
However, its not a personal subconscient, but a its more than the Ashram. For me, the Ashram is not a separate individualityexcept in that vision the other day,1 which is what surprised me. Its hardly that. Rather, it is still this Movement of everything, of everything that is included. So its like entering into the subconscient of the Whole earth, and it takes on forms which are quite familiar images to me, but they are absolutely symbolic and very, very funny! It took a moment to see that vainquons is spelled q-u-o-n-s. And I wasnt sure! I meant to ask Pavitra for a dictionary which gives verb conjugations, for then if Im stuck on something while writing, I can look it up.
The other day I wrote somethingit was a letter I gave Pavitra to read. I think theres a spelling mistake, he said. Its quite possible, I answered, I make plenty of them. He looked it up in a splendid dictionary and, as a matter of fact, it was a mistake. I meant to ask him for a dictionary this morning.
0 1960-08-10 - questions from center of Education - reading Sri Aurobindo, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning two teachers at the Ashram's Center of Education Who wrote Mother asking if 'only' Sri Aurobindo should be studied. Pavitra was present during this conversation.)
An eight page letternothing but passion.
--
And finally, Sweet Mother, what I would really like to know is the purpose of our Center of Education. Is it to teach the works of Sri Aurobindo? And only these? All the works or some only? Or is it to prepare the students to read the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? Is it to prepare them for the Ashram life or for outside occupations as well? So many opinions are floating in the air, and even the old disciples from Whom we expect some knowledge make so many contradictory statements
(Laughing, to Pavitra:) I suppose thats for you!
--
It is not a question of preparing students to read these or some other works. It is a question of drawing all those Who are capable of it out of the usual human routine of thought, feelings, action; of giving those Who are here every opportunity to reject the slavery of the human way of thinking and acting; of teaching all those Who want to listen that there is another, truer way of living, and that Sri Aurobindo taught us to become and to live the true being and that the purpose of education here is to prepare the children for this life and to make them capable of it.
As for all the others, all those Who want the human way of thinking and living, the world is vast and there is place there for everyone.
We do not want large numbers; we want a selection. We do not want brilliant students; we want living souls.
--
What I call studying is to take Sri Aurobindos books, where he quotes or speaks of one thing or another, then have the corresponding bookswhen he quotes something, you must take the book it corresponds to; when he speaks of something, you must study the writings on that subject. This is what I call studying. Then, after having read the corresponding works, you compare them with what Sri Aurobindo has said, and in this way there may be a beginning of understanding. If someone is very studious, he can review all that has ever been written or taught by going through Sri Aurobindos books. I mean this for someone Who loves working.
I SEE this state of mind, this mental attitude Oh! Its its so repugnant. People are so afraid of taking sides, so afraid of appearing biased; they are so afraid of appearing to have faith, so afraid Oh, its disgraceful.
0 1960-08-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
To this day I remember the experience. Truly, thats what I felt I did not intellectualize it. Exactly the impression of what Christ must have experienced when he felt the weight of the cross. It was the weight of a Whole world of darkness, unconsciousness, universal bad will, total incomprehension, something And it really felt like that as if I were carrying a frightful weightwhich was frightful because of its darkness, not because of its weight. So I thought, Well, well. This must be how Christ felt when they laid the cross on him.
There are plenty of them! (Mother indicates a pile of various papers) In another pile there must be as many again! It is a mania for collecting papers.
--
You know, someone Who appreciates this work tremendously is Nolini. Once he timidly asked me, Could I have a copy9? Fine, I said. Oh, he really appreciates it. And when I have something amusing like these most recent notes, I give him a copy. With that, hes happy. So he blesses you! (Mother laughs) Oh! Without you, this would never have been doneyou can be quite sure. Never.
***
--
(Unruffled) They dont exactly know Who Mother is.
No, fortunately not! Fortunately, my child! Fortunately.
--
The architect Who had already built 'Golconde,' the Ashram guest house.
An American filmmaker.
0 1960-08-27, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The little basket I put them in can no longer close! I take 45 minutes every morning upstairs to write letters. And I receive six, seven, eight, ten letters a day, so how can I manage? In the end, Sri Aurobindo spent the Whole night writing letterstill he went blind.
Myself, I cant afford to do that, I have other things to do. And Im not keen on going blind either. I need my eyes, they are my work instruments.
On top of that, there are all the people Who want to see me. Now everyone wants to see me! And since they are happy after coming once, they ask to come again! If I were very disagreeable and told them (Mother laughs) but that cant be done.
We should not allow all this to upset us. There is but one thing to doremain in a state of constant peace, constant equanimity, for things are not they are not very pleasant. Oh, if you only knew all the letters they write me if you knew, first of all, the tremendous pile of stupidities that need never be written at all; then, added to that, such a display of ignorance, egoism, bad will, total incomprehension and unequalled ingratitude, and all this so candid, my child! They heap all this on me daily, you know, and it comes from the most unexpected quarters.
If this were to affect me (Mother laughs), I would long ago have been Who knows where. I dont care at all, not at all, really not at allit doesnt bother me, it makes me smile.
(silence)
So dont let yourself be upset I often think of you, for I know how very sensitive you are to all this. It is it is really ugly. A Whole realm of human intelligence (its too great a compliment to call that intelligence), of the human mind, that is very, very repugnant. We must come out of that. It doesnt touch us. WE are elsewhereelsewhere. We are NOT in that rut! We are elsewhere, automatically.
Our head is above.
0 1960-09-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
After leaving your room, X kept repeating, Very wonderful. Then he explained to me that white rays were vibrating everywherealong the Whole length of the Kundalini, white, yellow and blue, but especially white (he indicated the forehead in particular).
He looked quite ecstatic while speaking of his experience.
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The idea is that the earth as a Whole must be prepared in all its forms, including even those least ready for the transformation. There must be a symbolic representation of all the elements on earth upon which we can work to establish the link.1 The earth is a symbolic representation of the universe, and the group is a symbolic representation of the earth.
Sri Aurobindo and I had discussed the matter in 1914 (quite a long time ago), for we had seen two possibilities: what we are now doing, or to withdraw into solitude and isolation until we had not only attained the Supermind, but begun the material transformation as well. And Sri Aurobindo rightfully said that we could not isolate ourselves, for as you progress, you become more and more universalized, and consequently you take the burden upon yourself2 in any case.
--
But this way of seeing is too far removed from the state of mind and spiritual education in which X has lived,4 of course, for him to understand. Nor am I in favor of proselytizing (to convince X); it would disturb him quite needlessly. He has not come here for that. He came here for something special, something I wanted which he brought, and I have learnt it. Now its excellent, he is a part of the group in his own fashion, thats all. And in a certain way, his presence here is having a very good effect on a Whole category of people Who had not been touched but Who are now becoming more and more favorably inclined. It was difficult to reach all the traditionalists, for example, the people attached to the old spiritual forms; well, they seem now to have been touched by something.
When Amrita,5 seized with zeal, wanted to make him understand what we were doing here and what Sri Aurobindo had wanted, it almost erupted into an unpleasant situation. So after that, I decided to identify myself with him to see I had never done this, because normally I only do it when I am responsible for someone, in order to truly help someone, and Ive never felt any responsibility in regard to X. So I wanted to see his inner situation, what could and could not be done. That was the day you saw him coming down from our meditation in an ecstatic state, when he told you that all separation between him and me had dropped awayit was to be expected, I anticipated as much!
--
But this experience with X was really interesting. I learned many things that day, many things If you concentrate long enough on any one point, you discover the Infinite (and in his own experience he found the infinite), what could be called your own Infinite. But this is not what WE want, not this; what we want is the direct and integral contact between the manifested universe and the Infinite out of which this universe has emerged. So then it is no longer an individual or personal contact with the Infinite, its a total contact. And Sri Aurobindo insists on this, he says that its absolutely impossible to have the transformation (not the contact, but the supramental transformation) without becoming universalized that is the first condition. You cannot become supramental before being universal. And to be universal means to accept everything, be everything, become everythingreally to accept everything. And as for all those Who are shut up in a system, even if it belongs to the highest regions of thought, it is not THAT.
But to each his destiny, to each his work, to each his realization, and to want to change someones destiny or someones realization is very wrong. For it simply throws him off balance thats all it does.
But for us Who want an integral realization, are all these mantras and this daily japa really a help, or do they also shut us in?
It gives discipline. Its an almost subconscious discipline of the character more than of thought.
Especially at the beginning, Sri Aurobindo used to shatter to pieces all moral ideas (you know, as in the Aphorisms, for example). He shattered all those things, he shattered them, really shattered them to pieces. So theres a Whole group of youngsters7 here Who were brought up with this idea that we can do whatever we want, it doesnt matter in the least!that they need not bother about all those concepts of ordinary morality. Ive had a hard time making them understand that this morality can be abandoned only for a higher one So, one has to be careful not to give them the Power too soon.
Its an almost physical discipline. Moreover, I have seen that the japa has an organizing effect on the subconscient, on the inconscient, on matter, on the bodys cellsit takes time, but by persistently repeating it, in the long run it has an effect. It is the same principle as doing daily exercises on the piano, for example. You keep mechanically repeating them, and in the end your hands are filled with consciousness it fills the body with consciousness.
--
Of course not! A disciplined work, which to us seems important, is to him basically an ignorance. What is true to such a person is a contemplative, ecstatic lifealong with a sentiment of compassion and charity, so that nonetheless you spend a bit of your time helping out the poor brutes! But the true thing is ecstatic contemplation. As for those Who are advanced and yet still attach some importance to workits irrational!
The only way I can make him understand that I have work to do is to tell him, Mother asked me to do it; then he keeps quiet.
--
Later on, I heard Sri Aurobindo saying that there were two people here to Whom he had done this and as soon as there was silence, they panicked: My God, Ive gone stupid!! And they threw it all overboard by starting to think again.
Once it was done, it was done. It was well-rooted.
--
I didnt speak of it to anyone, but it caused me some concern. And just the next day the machine broke down! When I was informed, immediately I thought It was then repaired, and again it broke downthree times. Then the following night, just before ten oclock I should mention that during the day I had thought, But why not attract these forces to our side, take them and satisfy them, give them some peace and joy and use them? I thought about it, concentrated a little, but then I didnt bother any further. At ten oclock that evening, they came upon mein a flood! They kept coming and coming. And I was busy with them the Whole time. They were not ugly (not so luminous either! ), they were Wholesome, straightforwardhonest forces. So I worked on them. This began exactly at 9:30, and for one hour I was busy working. After an hour, Id had enough: Listen, this is quite fine, youre very nice, but I cant spend all my time like this! We shall see what to do later for it absorbed my Whole consciousness. They kept coming and coming (you understand what that means to a body?!). So at 10:30 I told them, Listen, my little ones, be quiet now, thats enough for today At 10:30, the machine broke down!
I found out, of course, because they log everything at the factory, so when they came to inform me of the breakdown the next morning, I asked them what time it had happenedexactly 10:30.
--
The disciple Who manages the sugar factory.
***
0 1960-10-02a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Before going to bed, sometimes I say to myself, I will do what is necessary to spend my night in these great currents of force(because there is a way to do it). And then I think, Oh, what an egotist you are, my girl! So sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesntwhen theres something important to do, it doesnt happen. But all I have to do is concentrate in a certain way before going to sleep to spend my Whole night in these very far from here, very far I cant say very far from the earth, for surely its in an intermediate zone between the forces from above and the earths atmosphere. Thats what it mainly is, in any case. Its a great universal current as well, but mainly its what descends and comes onto the earth, and it is permeating the earths atmosphere all the time, all the time, and it comes with this wide, overall visionit makes for wonderful nights I no longer bother about people at allat least not as such, but in a more impersonal way.
(silence)
I have been pestered my Whole life by something similar to the sense of duty without its stupidity. Sri Aurobindo had told me that it was a censor, that I had with me a considerable one! It was constantly, constantly telling me, No, its not like that, its like this Oh, no! Its wrong to do that; be careful, dont be egotistical; be carefuldo this, do that. He was right, but I sent it away long agoor rather, Sri Aurobindo sent it away. But there remains the habit of not doing what I like. Rather, of doing what MUST be done, and whether its pleasant or not makes no difference.
This, too, Sri Aurobindo had explained to me. I used to tell him, Yes, you always speak of lifes delight, life for the sake of its delight. But as soon as I had the notion, as soon as I was put in the presence of the Supreme, it was: For Youexclusively what You want. You are the sole, the unique and exclusive reason for being. And that has remained, and this movement is so strong that even when you see, now I have ecstasy and ananda in abundanceeverything comes, everything. But even then, even when that is there, something in me always turns towards the Supreme and says, Does this TRULY serve You? Is it what You expect of me, what You want from me?
0 1960-10-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Im just now finishing the Yoga of Self-Perfection When we see what human life is and, even in the best of cases, what it represents in the way of imbecility, stupidity, narrowness, meanness (not to mention ignorance because that is too flagrant) and even those Who believe themselves to have generous heart, for example, or liberal ideas, a desire to do good! Each time the consciousness orients itself in one direction to attain some result, everything that was in existence (not just ones personal existence, but this sort of collectivity of existences that each being represents), everything that is contrary to this effort immediately presents itself in its crudest light.
It happened this morning while I was walking back and forth in my room. I had finished my japa I had to stop and hold my head in my hands to keep from bursting into tears. No, it is too dreadful, I said to myself; and to think that we want Perfection!
--
The day before yesterday, I spent the Whole night looking on. I had read the passage by Sri Aurobindo in The Synthesis on supramental time (wherein past, present and future coexist in a global consciousness). While youre in it, its marvelous! You understand things perfectly. But when youre not in it Above all, theres this problem of how to keep the force of ones aspiration, the power of progress, this power which seems so inevitableso inevitable if existence (lets simply take terrestrial existence) is to mean anything and its presence to be justified. (This ascending movement towards a progressive better that will be eternally better)How is this to be kept when you have the total vision this vision in which everything coexists. At that moment, the other becomes something like a game, an amusement, if you will. (Not everyone finds it amusing!) And when you contain all that, why allow yourself the pleasure of succession? Is this pleasure of succession, of seeing things one after the other, equal to this intensity of the will for progress? Words are foolish!
The effort to see and to understand this gripped me all night. And when I woke up this morning, I thanked the Lord; I said to Him, Obviously, if You were to keep me totally in that consciousness, I could no longer I could no longer do my work! How could I do my work? For I can only say something to people when I feel it or see it, when I see that its what must be said, but if I am simultaneously in a consciousness in which Im aware of everything that has led to that situation, everything that is going to happen, everything Im going to say, everything the others going to feel then how could I do it!
--
But as I told you, now my japa is different. It is as if I were taking the Whole world to lift it up; no longer is it a concentration on the body, but rather a taking of the Whole world the entire world sometimes in its details, sometimes as a Whole, but constantly, constantlyto establish the Contact (with the supramental world).
But what you are speaking of, this sort of sound-mill, this milling of words interminably repeating the same thing, Ive suddenly caught it two or three times (not very often and with long intervals). It has always seemed fantastic to me! How is it stopped? Always in the same way. Its something that takes place outside, actually; its not insideits outside, on the surface, generally somewhere here (Mother indicates the temples), and the method is to draw your consciousness up above, to go there and remain therewhite. Always this whiteness, white like a sheet of paper, flat like a plate of glass. An absolutely flat and white and motionless surfacewhite! White like luminous milk, turned upwards. Not transparent: white.
--
So I understand more and more. Everythingthis Whole organization, this Whole aggregate, all these cells and nerves and sensorsare all meant uniquely for the work, they have no other purpose than the work; every foolish act that is done is for the work; every stupidity that is thought is for the work; you are made the way you are because only in that way can you do the work and its none of your business to seek to be somewhere else. Thats my conclusion. Very well, as You wish, may Your will be done!No, not be done; it IS done. As You wish, exactly as You wish!
And in the end, its quite fun.
--
I am just finishing The Synthesis of Yoga, and what Sri Aurobindo says is exactly what has happened to me throughout my life. And he explains how you can still make mistakes as long as you are not supramentalized. Sri Aurobindo describes all the ways by which images are sent to youand they are not always images or reflections of the truth of things past, present or future; there are also all the images that come from human mental formations and all the various things that want to be considered. It is very, very interesting. And interestingly enough, in these few pages I have found a description of the work I have spent my Whole life doing, trying to SIFT out all we see.
I can only be sure of something once a certain type of picture comes, and then the Whole world could tell me, But things didnt happen like that; I would reply, Sorry, but I see it. And that type of picture is certain, for I have studied it, I have studied their differences in quality and the texture of the pictures. It is very interesting.
***
--
In these Questions and Answers, for example, you had wanted to edit out the words Sweet Mother since people from the West might not understand. But then, we have just now received a letter from someone Who suddenly had a very beautiful experience when he came across those words, Sweet Mother. He saw, he suddenly felt this maternal presence of love and compassion watching over the world. The moment had come and, precisely, it did its work. Its very interesting.
Mentally we say, Oh, that cant go. And even I am often inclined to say, Dont publish this, dont speak of something or other. Then I realize how silly it is! There is something that uses everything. Even what may seem useless to usor perhaps worse than useless, harmfulmight be just the thing to give someone the right shock.
0 1960-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And when it came to others he could remove an illness like that (gesture, as if Mother were calmly extracting an illness from the body with her fingertips). That happened to you once, didnt it? You said that I had done this for you but it wasnt me; he was the one Who did it He could give you peace in the mind in the same way (Mother brushes her hand across her forehead). You see, his actions were absolutely On others, it had all the characteristics of a total mastery Absolutely superhuman.
One day, hell tell you all this himself.1
0 1960-10-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There was a considerable library in the studio; one Whole end was given over to the librarymore than two thousand books belonging to my brother. There were even the complete works of several classical writers. And I had my entire collection of the Revue Cosmique, and my post card collection (it was down below)mainly post cards of Algeria, Tlemcen, nearly 200 of them. But there were five years of the Revue Cosmique. And written in such a French! How funny it was!
Theons wife dictated it in English while she was in trance. Another English lady Who was there claimed to know French like a Frenchman. Myself, I never use a dictionary, she would say, I dont need a dictionary. But then she would turn out such translations! She made all the classic mistakes of English words that mustnt be translated like that. Then it was sent to me in Paris for correcting. It was literally impossible.
There was this Themanlys, my brothers schoolmate; he wrote books, but he was lazy-minded and didnt want to work! So he had passed that job on to me. But it was impossible, you couldnt do a thing with it. And what words! Theon would invent words for the subtle organs, the inner senses; he had found a word for each thinga frightful barbarism! And I took care of everything: I found the printer, corrected the proofsall the work for a long time.
--
It wasnt Ki but Chi, for he was the founder of China!those things were fantastic! The story was almost childish, but there was a Whole world of knowledge in it. Madame Theon was an extraordinary occultist. That woman had incredible faculties, incredible.
She was a small woman, fat, almost flabbyshe gave you the feeling that if you leaned against her, it would melt! Once, I remember I was there in Tlemcen with Andres father, Who had come to join usa painter, an artist. Theon was wearing a dark purple robe. Theon said to him, This robe is purple. No, its not purple, the other answered, its violet. Theon went rigid: When I say purple, its purple! And they started arguing over this foolishness. Suddenly there flashed from my head, No, this is too ridiculous!I didnt say a word, but it went out from my head (I even saw the flash), and then Madame Theon got up and came over to me, stood behind me (neither of us uttered a word the other two were staring at each other like two angry cocks), then she laid my head against her breastabsolutely the feeling of sinking into eiderdown!
And never in my life, never, had I felt such peaceit was absolutely luminous and soft a peace, such a soft, tender, luminous peace. After a moment, she bent down and whispered in my ear, One must never question ones master! It wasnt I Who was questioning!
She was a wonderful woman, wonderful. But as for him well
--
The experience I havewhat I mean by I is this aggregate here (Mother indicates her body), this particular individualityis that the more quiet and calm it is, the more work it can do and the faster the work can be done. What is most disturbing and time consuming are all these agitated vibrations that fall on me (truly speaking, each person Who comes throws them on me). And this is what makes the work difficultit stirs up a whirlwind. And you cant do anything in this whirlwind, its impossible. If you try to do something material, your fingers stumble; if you try to do something intellectual, your thoughts get all entangled and you no longer see clearly. Ive had the experience, for example, of wanting to look up a word in the dictionary while this agitation was in the atmosphere, and everything jumps up and down (yet the lighting is the same and Im using the same magnifying glass), I no longer see a thing, its all jumping! I go page by page, but the word simply doesnt exist in the dictionary! Then I remain quiet, I do this (Mother makes a gesture of bringing down the Peace) and after half a minute I open the dictionary: the very spot, and the word leaps out at me! And I see clearly and distinctly. Consequently I have now the indisputable proof that if you want to do anything properly, you must FIRST be calm but not only be calm yourself; you must either isolate yourself or be capable of imposing a calm on this whirlwind of forces that comes upon you all the time from all around.
All the teachers are wanting to quit the schoolweary! Which means theyll begin the year with half the teachers gone. They live in constant tension, they dont know how to relax thats really what it is. They dont know how to act without agitation.
--
(Mother laughs heartily) Your japa is lovely. Oh, its a Whole world thats forming, and its truly harmonious, powerful, beautiful. Its very good. If you like, well do this for a few moments from time to time. It was very how should I put it? very pleasant for me. It feels comfortable, a bit removed from all this porridge! I was very glad.
If you want to prevent these disturbances in your physical mind, then when you sit for japa You know my Force, dont you? Well then, wrap it around you, like this, twelve times, from top to bottom.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
S has a nephew in Bombay, and one day towards the end of August or beginning September, he told me an extraordinary story about this nephew, Who had disappeared (he showed me his photographhe looks rather like a medium). He returned home two days later, I believe. Hed been found in a train in a hypnotic state; fortunately someone shook him and he suddenly woke up: Why am I here? What am I doing here? (He had no intention of travelling, you see; he had simply left his house to visit a neighbor in Bombay.) So he returned home without knowing what had happened to him. And he was quite bizarre, really rather off.
A few days later, this nephew had to go somewhere, I dont know where; he went down to the railway station and didnt return. Impossible to find out what had happened to him, he was nowhere to be found. Several days had passed when the family decided to send me his photograph and to tell me the story, adding that it was surely a sequel to the previous occurrence (there must be some people doing hypnotism), and then they asked me where he was and what had become of him.
--
About two weeks later (in other words, ten days or so before September 26), some more news the boys older brother, Who lives in Ahmedabad (not Bombay), came to visit his mother, father and grandmo ther (theres also a grandmo ther), and he asked about his brother. He had come with a friend. Your brother has disappeared, they explained, we dont know what has happened to him. So the two of them decided to search for him: Well find him .
The day before their departure, the elder brothers friend said he was going to visit the grandmo ther (she lives some hundred yards away). He went outand didnt return. Disappeared.
--
On his way to the grandmo thers house, he passed by the station and went in to drink something. While drinking, two persons Who were there started playing with some balls in front of him. He WATCHED. But suddenly, he felt very uneasy; he wanted to leave and ran towards an exit that opened onto the tracksit was closed and he could not get out. And these two people were just behind him; suddenly he lost consciousness: I dont know what happened to me after that.
He woke up in a railway station somewhere between Bombay and Poona, and he began telling them that he was hungry (he was with those same two persons). They punched him in the stomach and put a handkerchief over his nosehe again passed out! At Poona, he woke up again (hed lost his appetite by then!), and again they put the handkerchief over his nose. And it went on like thatthey kept on punching him a lot. When he woke up in the country on the outskirts of Poona, four men were around him arguing in a language he didnt know (his language is Gujarati). They were probably speaking in some other language, I dont know which oneit seems they were very dark. He didnt understand, but from various signs they made he could see that they were arguing about whether to kill him or not. Finally, they told him (probably in a language he could understand), Either you join our gang, or well kill you. He grunted in reply so as not to commit himself. The others decided to wait for their chief (thus the chief wasnt there): Well decide after he comes. Then just to make sure, they punched him a few more times in the belly and put the handkerchief over his noseout!
Sometime later (he doesnt know how long, for until he returned he had no sense of time), he woke up in a rather dark, low-roofed house way out in the country; there were five persons now, not four. They were busy eating, so he was careful not to budge. Mainly they were drinking (they have prohibition there). Four of them were already dead drunk. So he got up to have a look. The fifth one, Whom he hadnt seen before (he must have been the chief), was not yet totally drunk; when he saw the boy stirring, he let out a fearful growlso the poor boy threw himself flat in the corner and lay stillhe waited. After awhile, the fifth one (after downing another bottle) was also dead drunk. So now that he saw them all fast asleep, he got up very cautiously and he said he ran for an hour and a half! A boy pummelled as he had been, Who hadnt eaten for four days! I think thats a miracle.
After running for an hour and a half, he found himself back at the Poona station, he doesnt know how. He caught a train back to Bombay, scarcely knowing how he managed it.
--
Then the police got involved. They wanted to take him back to the countryside around Poona (naturally I suppose they nursed him in the meantime), but not much came out of it. Seems that wherever he remembered seeing these people, when he said he had seen them, he fainted. Finally, I was told the story, and the poor family wrote to me saying, Who are these demons with such a great power that even it withstands Mothers force as well as that of Xand Who are holding our son? So X was again informed and, knowing the story of the elder brothers friend, he said, Ah, now I know where the other one is, and I hope it wont take too long. But then September 26 passedgeneral despair in the family. They wrote to me, and I concentrated.
It was just before Durga Puja,3 or just after I cant remember (dates and I dont go together)no, it was after Durga Puja. So I went into a deep concentration and, as a matter of fact, I saw that a very powerful and dangerous rakshasic4 power was involved. And then, when I started walking for my japa upstairs in my room (I had given some thought to this story and tried asking for something to be done), I suddenly saw Durga before me raising high a lance of white light the lance of light that destroys the hostile forcesand She struck into a black swarming mass of men.
But then there came a frightful reaction. For one day I was nearly as sicknot quiteas two years ago5 (they must have used the same mantra). And, you see, I Who never vomit terrible vomitingeverything inside came out! Only now Im a bit more experienced than two years ago (!), so I set it right It happened here, downstairs, in the afternoon. I went right back up to my room (I didnt see anyone that afternoon), and I remained concentrated to try to find out what had happened. I saw that it came from therea backlash of those people trying to defend themselves.
I did what had to be done.
--
I found out the details: this boy had to go to the station, but on his way, he went into a shoe store just next to the station to buy a pair of sandals. As he entered, he saw a man there choosing a pair of womens shoes for himself! This seemed strange to him: Whats this man doing buying and he WATCHEDsuddenly, nothing more. He lost consciousness and no longer knew what happened to him. And thats how the story begana man selecting womens shoes in a shop! He must do strange thingsprobably intentionallyto attract peoples attention. Naturally, out of curiosity, the boy started watching, and that was thatall of a sudden, blank, nothing more! And long afterwards he found himself far away in a train with this man. Hes here now with his mother they came to thank me. Its he Who gave me the details. Hes a nice boy, but all this has left him with some anxiety, especially when he speaks of it. Hes trying to forget. He told me hed like to join the army and asked my permission. The boy feels a need for force and he has the idea that to be part of such a force would be good for him. (Of course, he didnt tell me all this, hes not that conscious. But thats what he feels the need to be supported by an organization of force.) So I encouraged him. I told him it was a good idea. His mother wasnt very happy! She feared he was leaping from the frying pan into the fire!
Another curious detail is that after having taken away all his appetite and having put him in the caf as a waiter, they told him, Now you must eat, so he tried to eat, and for four days he vomited up everything he put init was completely black! After that, he was able to start eating a little. Its a fantastic story!
--
As of now, I have no other news Theyve been caught, so they cant do any wrong OUTWARDLY, but still their power is there. Were going to have to be And everyone here says the same thinglike a black veil of unconsciousness that has fallen upon us. Even those Who arent accustomed to such things have felt it. Im presently cleaning the Whole placeits not easy. Everything is upside down.
I had X informed. But I didnt tell him my difficulty (this mantra they threw on me to kill me), I didnt speak of that at all. For he had insisted, from the beginning he had said, Mother must see to it, only Mothers grace can save them. And I understood their attack came just at the time of Durga Puja, so I understood that Durga had to intervene. So thats the story.
--
Oh, its terrifying! I dont know Who had the stupid idea of showing this to the child, but after he saw it he had a fever for three days, with terrible chills. And I believe the artist too was sick after finishing his sketch.
***
--
Its so contrary not only to the education but to the make up of people from the West! For an Indian for a modern Indian it would be difficult, but for those Who have kept something of the old tradition it would not be difficult. Its easy for children raised in a monastery or near the guru
(silence)
--
Only, there is all that comes from outside thats what is most dangerous. Constantly, constantlywhen you eat, you catch it oh, what a mass of vibrations! The vibrations of the thing you eat when it was living (they always remain), the vibrations of the person Who cooked it, vibrations of All the time, all the time, they never stopyou breathe, they enter. Of course, when you start talking to someone or mixing with people, then you become a bit more conscious of what is coming, but even just sitting still, uninvolved with othersit comes! There is an almost total interdependenceisolation is an illusion. By reinforcing your own atmosphere (Mother gestures, as if building a wall around her), you can hold these things off TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, but simply this effort to keep them at a distance creates (Im thinking in English and speaking in French) disturbances.8 Anyway, now all this has been SEEN.
But I know in an absolute way that once this Whole mass of the physical mind is mastered and the Brahmic consciousness is brought into it in a continuous way, you CAN you become the MASTER of your health.
This is why I tell people (not that I expect them to do it, at least not now, but its good they know) that its NOT a matter of fate, NOT something that completely escapes our control, NOT some sort of Law of Nature over which we have no powerit is not so. We are truly the masters of everything which has been brought together to create our transitory individuality; we have been given the power of control, if only we knew how to use it.
--
Theres also this old idea rooted in religions of Chaldean or Christian origin of a God with Whom you can have no true contactan abyss between the two. That is terrible.
That absolutely has to stop.
0 1960-10-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Then suddenly I went into a little trance. And in it I saw you, but you were physically, you were on one plane, and then I saw another man on a different plane (I saw him quite concretely; he was rather tall, broad-shoulderednot so tall as broad, with a dark, European suit). And he took your hands and started shaking them enthusiastically!but you were quite indifferent, just as you are now, dressed in Indian fashion and sitting cross-legged. He took both your hands and started shaking them! And then I distinctly heard the words: Congratulations, its a great success!it had to do with your book.3 And at the same time, I saw all sorts of people and things Who were touched by your bookall kinds of people, obviously French, or Westerners in any case women, men. There was even one woman (she must have been an actress or a singer or anyway, someone Whose life was she was even dressed for the stage, with some kind of tightsa beautiful girl!) and she said to someone, Ah, it has even given me a taste for the spiritual life! It was extremely interesting All kinds of things of this nature. And then once again I came out of this trance and In the end, I tried to do some certain thing for you and it turned out well. It turned out quite well.
But then, just before that, there was this powdering of golden light coming down. And as it descended, it was white with a touch of gold (but it was white) and it came down in a column, with such POWER! And then, just at the end, this powdering of gold came and settled into this white light which had remained there the Whole timeoh, it was so abundant. A great power of realization. I had a hard time coming out of it! At the start, I had decided to come out of it at half past, so I came out, but still not completely
So there, my child. And you, what did you feel?
--
According to tradition, Anubis, the jackal-headed god, helped Isis to rebuild the body of her spouse, Osiris, Who had been killed and dismembered by his brother Set. Osiris was the first god to rule over men. Owing to certain special rites, Isis, helped by Anubis, succeeded in bringing him back to life. So we are not very far from the legend of Savitri and Satyavan.
L'Orpailleur, which had just been published. The man's description, as a matter of fact, bears a striking resemblance to the publisher.
0 1960-11-05, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All these memories (actually theyre rather pictures) seem to be coming forward to show themselves with all the knowledge, truth and HELP they represent; they come to say, There! You see, this is the origin of thata Whole curve. Then once Ive seen it, its gone.
One day, as an experiment, I tried to remember something from the past, for I was interested in what it contained; I triedimpossible! It had been cleaned out, it was gone. So I understood that these things come, they show themselves (you have to be ATTENTIVE and know what purpose they have served) and then they go away.
I have so totally forgotten a Whole world of incidents and events that when someone reminds me of something (the people around me have lived with me, so theyve seen things and remember them), I get the feeling that they are speaking of someone or something elseit no longer has any connection with me at all. And its the same with everything, whether near or far, which has brought to my consciousness whatever it had to bring, lost its utility anddisappeared. Only, these memories probably still have some utility for the others, so they remain. But for me its completely erased, absolutely, as if it had never been.
Its the only way to forget.
--
So then I went in search of its origin. Its something in the subconscientin the cells subconscient. Its roots are there, and on the least occasion And its so very, very ingrained that For example, you can be feeling very good, the body can be perfectly harmonious (and when the body is perfectly harmonious, its motions are harmonious, things are in their true places, everything works exactly as it should without needing the least attentiona general harmony), when suddenly the clock strikes, for example, or someone utters a word, and you have just the faint impression Oh, its late, Im not going to be on timea second, a split second, and the Whole working of the body falls apart. You suddenly feel feeble, drained, uneasy. And you have to intervene. Its terrible. And were at the mercy of such things!
To change it, you have to descend into itwhich is what Im in the midst of doing. But you know, it makes for painful moments. Anyway, once its done, it will be something. When that is done, Ill explain it to you. And then Ill have the power to restore you to health.
0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
He lives in a region which is largely a kind of vital vibration which penetrates the mind and makes use of the imagination (essentially its the same region most so-called cultured men live in). I dont mean to be severe or critical, but its a world that likes to play to itself. Its not really what we could call histrionics, not thatits rather a need to dramatize to oneself. So it can be an heroic drama, it can be a musical drama, it can be a tragic drama, or quite simply a poetic drama and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, its a romantic drama. And then, these soul states (!) come replete with certain spoken expressions (laughing) Im holding myself back from saying certain things!You know, its like a theatricals store where you rent scenery and costumes. Its all ready and waitinga little call, and there it comes, ready-made. For a particular occasion, they say, Youre the woman of my life (to be repeated as often as necessary), and for another they say Its a Whole world, a Whole mode of human life which I suddenly felt I was holding in my arms. Yes, like a decoration, an ornament, a nicetyan ornament of existence, to keep it from being flat and dull and the best means the human mind has found to get out of its tamas. Its a kind of artifice.
So for persons Who are severe and grave (there are two such examples here, but its not necessary to name them) There are beings Who are grave, so serious, so sincere, Who find it hypocritical; and when it borders on certain (how shall I put it?) vital excesses, they call it vice. There are others Who have lived their entire lives in a yogic or religious discipline, and they see this as an obstacle, illusion, dirtyness (Mother makes a gesture of rejecting with disgust), but above all, its this terrible illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine. And when I saw the way these two people here reacted, in fact, I said to myself, but you see, I FELT So strongly that this too is the Divine, it too is a way of getting out of something that has had its place in evolution, and still has a place, individually, for certain individuals. Naturally, if you remain there, you keep turning in circles; it will always be (not eternally, but indefinitely) the woman of my life, to take that as a symbol. But once youre out of it, you see that this had its place, its utilityit made you emerge from a kind of very animal-like wisdom and quietude that of the herd or of the being Who sees no further than his daily round. It was necessary. We mustnt condemn it, we mustnt use harsh words.
The mistake we make is to remain there too long, for if you spend your Whole life in that, well, youll probably need many more lifetimes. But once the chance to get out of it comes, you can look at it with a smile and say, Yes, its really a sort of love for fiction!people love fiction, they want fiction, they need fiction! Otherwise its boring and all much too flat.
All this came to me yesterday. I kept Z with me for more than half an hour, nearly 45 minutes. He told me some very interesting things. What he said was quite good and I encouraged him a great dealsome action on the right lines which will be quite useful, and then a book unfortunately mixed with an influence from that artificial world (but actually, even that can be used as a link to attract people). He must have spoken to you about this. He wants to write a kind of dialogue to introduce Sri Aurobindos ideasits a good idealike the conversations in Les Hommes de Bonne Volont by Jules Romain. He wants to do it, and I told him it was an excellent idea. And not only one typehe should take all types of people Who for the moment are closed to this vision of life, from the Catholic, the fervent believer, right to the utmost materialist, men of science, etc. It could be very interesting.
This is what you see in life, its all like thateach thing has its place and its necessity. This has made me see a Whole current of life I was very, very involved with people from this milieu during a Whole period of my existence and in fact, its the first approach to Beauty. But it gets mixed.
(Mother remains silent a moment)
--
Yes, but naturally without daring to criticize me openly. But Im aware of it. On the one hand, they see it as a kind of looseness on my part (oh, not only for thatmany things!). And on the other hand,1 you know well enough; it applies to other things, slightly different areas, its not exactly the same, but in this area theyre also severe. Im even told that there are some people Who shouldnt be in the Ashram.
My reply is that the Whole world should be in the Ashram!
But as I cannot contain the Whole world, I have to contain at least one representative of each type.
They also find I give too much time and too much force (and maybe too much attention) to people and things that should be regarded with more severity. That never bothered me much. It doesnt matter, they can say what they like.
But since Zs visit yesterday, and this morning on the balcony Oh, its so I had already seen this long agothis Whole milieu that is not very pretty and I had said, Well, its all right, thats how it is, and I didnt discuss it further: Thats how it is, and absolutely the Whole world belongs to the Lord IS the Lord! And the Lord made it so, and the Lord wants it so, and its quite all right. Then I put it aside. But with his visit yesterday, it found its placesuch a smiling place. And theres a Whole world of things of life which have found their true place in this waywith a smile!
(silence)
As if suddenly something were opening in a marvelous wayit has classified a Whole part of terrestrial life. It was truly interesting.
(silence)
--
And, even with Sri Aurobindo, even with him I didnt speak of these things for I wouldnt waste his time, and I found it quite useless to burden him with all this. I would tell him I always described my visions and experiences at night I always recounted that to him. And he would remember (I myself would forget; the next day, the Whole thing would be gone), he would remember; then sometimes, long afterwards, even years afterwards, he would say, Ah, yes! You had seen that back then. He had a wonderful memory. While myself, I would already have forgotten. But those were the only things I told him, and even then only when I saw that it had a very sure, very superior quality. I didnt bother him with a Whole jumble of words. But otherwise . even Nolini,4 Who understands well I never, never felt even the (its not the need) not even the POSSIBILITY.
I dont want to tell you this too precisely, to expand on it, for these things cannot be explained. I want you tonot know nor think it, but feel it suddenly, like a little electric shock within that leaps forth.
--
Later coming back to the experience She has just described, Mother added the following: 'It's a very interesting experience. It's a very powerful lever for abolishing the moral point of view in its narrowest forms. And this is precisely what I encounter all the time in peopleyou see, all those Who make a spiritual effort bring me truckloads of morality!'
Original English.
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its a lack of plasticity in the mind, and they are bound by the expression of things; for them, words are rigid. Sri Aurobindo explained it so well in The Secret of the Veda; he shows how language evolves and how, before, it was very supple and evocative. For example, one could at once think of a river and of inspiration. Sri Aurobindo also gives the example of a sailboat and the forward march of life. And he says that for those of the Vedic age it was quite natural, the two could go together, superimposed; it was merely a way of looking at the same thing from two sides, whereas now, when a word is said, we think only of this word all by itself, and to get a clear picture we need a Whole literary or poetic imagery (with explanations to boot!). Thats exactly the case with these children; theyre at a stage where everything is rigid. Such is the product of modern education. It even extracts the subtlest nuance between two words and FIXES it: And above all, dont make any mistake, dont use this word for that word, for otherwise your writings no good. But its just the opposite.
(silence)
--
But its explained very well in Savitri! All these things have their laws and their conventions (and truly speaking, a really FORMIDABLE power is needed to change anything of their rights, for they have rightswhat they call laws) Sri Aurobindo explains this very well when Savitri, following Satyavan into death, argues with the god of Death.3 Its the Law, and Who has the right to change the Law? he says. And then comes this wonderful passage at the end where she replies, My God can change it. And my God is a God of Love. Oh, how magnificent!
And by force of repeating this to him, he yields She replies in this way to EVERYTHING.
--
So Im trying to come to an understanding, to reach an agreement these are very complicated matters (!). For its a Whole totality You see, we are trying something here which really is contrary to all those laws and practices, something which disturbs everything. So they propose things that have me advancing like this (sinuous motion), without disturbing things too much, and without having to call in forces (Mother makes a gesture of a lance thrust into the pack) forces a bit too great, which may disturb things too much. Like that, we can keep tacking back and forth.
A while ago You know that I have TREMENDOUS financial difficulties. In fact, I have handed the Whole matter over to the Lord, telling Him, Its your affair; if you want us to continue this experience, well, you must provide the means. But this upsets some of them, so they come along with all kinds of suggestions to keep me from having to to resort to something so drastic. They suggest all kinds of things; some time ago they said, What about a good cyclone, or a good earthquake? A lot of damage to the Ashram, a public appeal that would bring in some funds! (Mother laughs) Yes, its of this order! And its all quite clear and definitewe have veritable conversations!
I listen, I answer. Its not satisfactory! I told them. But theyve kept to their idea, they like it. When that first storm came some time back (you remember, with those terrible bolts of lightning and that asuric being P.K. saw and sketched): Dont you want us to destroy something? I got angry. But it was This influence was so close and acute that it gave you goose bumps! The Whole time the storm lasted, I had to hold on tight in my bed, like this (Mother closes her fists tight as in a trance or deep concentration), and I didnt movedidnt movelike a a rock during the entire storm, until he consented to go a bit further away. Then I moved. And even now, it comesfrom others (theres not just one, you see, there are many): How about a good flood? A roof collapsed the other day with someone underneath, but he was able to escape. So roofs are collapsing, houses Arouse public sympathy, we must help the Ashram! Its no good, I said. But maybe thats whats responsible for this interminable rain. And they offer so many other things oh, what they parade past me! You could write books on all this!
But generally and this is something Theon had told me (Theon was very qualified on the subject of hostile forces and the workings of all that resists the divine influence, and he was a great fighteras you might imagine! He himself was an incarnation of an asura, so he knew how to tackle these things!); he was always saying, If you make a VERY SMALL concession or suffer a minor defeat, it gives you the right to a very great victory. Its a very good trick. And I have observed, in practice, that for all things, even for the very little things of everyday life, its trueif you yield on one point (if, even though you see what should be, you yield on a very secondary and unimportant point), it immediately gives you the power to impose your will for something much more important. I mentioned this to Sri Aurobindo and he said that it was true. It is true in the world as it is today, but its not what we want; we want it to change, really change.
He wrote this in a letter, I believe, and he spoke of this system of compensation for example, those Who take an illness on themselves in order to have the power to cure; and then theres the symbolic story of Christ dying on the cross to set men free. And Sri Aurobindo said, Thats fine for a certain age, but we must now go beyond that. As he told me (its even one of the first things he told me), We are no longer at the time of Christ when, to be victorious, it was necessary to die.
I have always remembered this.
--
I dont really see what we can do I mean, its you Who does, of course, but I dont see what we can do to help change things.
Nor do I!
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont know if its due to Zs visit1 or simply if the time had come and things converged (because thats what generally happens), but a Whole period of the past is coming up again and its not a purely personal past, for it includes all the acquaintances I used to have, a Whole collection of things that represents not only my individual life but something rather collective (as it always is; each of us is always a collectivity but we arent aware of it, and if anything were taken away, it would unbalance the Whole). A Whole set of things that were absolutely wiped clean from the memory (it must have been buried somewhere in the subconscient or the semi-conscientin any case, something more unconscious than the subconscient), and it has all come back up. Oh, things such things If just two weeks ago someone had asked me, Do you remember that? I would have replied, No, not at all! And its coming from every side. Oh, such mediocrity! (mediocre in the way of consciousness, experiences and activities) and so gray, so dull, so flat! Only this morning, while getting ready for the balcony, I thought, Is it possible to live like that?!
And then it became so clear that behind all this there was always the same luminous Presence, this Presence that is everywhere, always, watching over everything.
--
So I understood that this must correspond to a certain realm of experience; I understood all those Who say, If it has to be like this, if it can never be otherwise, then (this opposition, this abyss between a TRUE life, a TRUE consciousness, a TRUE activity, something living, powerful, fulfilling and life as it now is), if there must always be this difference between the physical expression as it is or as it can be in the present circumstances, and the true life, then For if despite everythingdespite this tremendous distance Ive covered in my life (these memories go back more than sixty years) and all the evolutionary effort upwards I have made since that time IN MATTER (Im not speaking of leaving Matter behind, but IN MATTER, IN action)if that doesnt further reduce this gap between the true consciousness and the possible material realization, then I understand I understand why people say, Its hopeless. (Of course, this hopeless is meaningless to me.)
But I (how can I put this?) I lived their experience, I lived it; and even events which seem quite extraordinary when seen from afar, which is the way they appear to most people, even historical things which have furthered the earths transformation and its upheavals the crucial events, the great works, you might sayare woven from the SAME fabric, they are the SAME thing! When you look at all this from afar, on the Whole it can make an impression, but the life of each minute, of each hour, of each second is woven from this SAME fabric, drab, dull, insipid, WITHOUT ANY TRUE LIFEa mere reflection of life, an illusion of lifepowerless, void of any light or anything that resembles joy in the least. Oh! if it has always to remain like that, then we dont want any of it.
Such is the feeling it gives.
For me its different, because I KNOW that it can and must become something else. But then all this Consciousness which is there and in which I live and which has this world vision must come forward and manifest in the vibration of EACH secondnot in a Whole which looks interesting when seen from afar; it must enter the vibration of each second, the consciousness of each minute, otherwise
(silence)
How well I understand all those Who dont know or to Whom it hasnt been shown or revealed that we are GOING towards something else, that it WILL BE something else! Such a feeling of futility, stupidity, uselessness, and absolutely devoid of any any intensity, any life, any reality, any ardor, any soulbah! Its disgusting.
While it was all coming up, I thought, How is this possible? For during those years of my life (Im now outside things; I do them but Im entirely outside, so they dont involve mewhether its like this or like that makes no difference to me; Im only doing my work, thats all), I was already conscious, but nevertheless I was IN what I was doing to a certain extent; I was this web of social life (but thank God it wasnt here in India, for had it been here I could not have withstood it! I think that even as a child I would have smashed everything, because here its even worse than over there). You see, there its its a bit less constricting, a bit looser, you can slip through the mesh from time to time to brea the some air. But here, according to what Ive learned from people and what Sri Aurobindo told me, its absolutely unbearable (its the same in Japan, absolutely unbearable). In other words, you cant help but smash everything. Over there, you sometimes get a breath of air, but still its quite relative. And this morning I wondered (you see, for years I lived in that way for years and years) just as I was wondering, How was I ABLE to live that and not kick out in every direction?, just as I was looking at it, I saw up above, above this (it is worse than horrible, it is a kind of Oh, not despair, for there isnt even any sense of feeling there is NOTHING! It is dull, dull, dull gray, gray, gray, clenched tight, a closed web that lets through neither air nor life nor lightthere is nothing) and just then I saw a splendor of such sweet light above itso sweet, so full of true love, true compassion something so warm, so warm the relief, the solace of an eternity of sweetness, light, beauty, in an eternity of patience which feels neither the past nor the inanity and imbecility of thingsit was so wonderful! That was entirely the feeling it gave, and I said to myself, THAT is what made you live, without THAT it would not have been possible. Oh, it would not have been possible I would not have lived even three days! THAT is there, ALWAYS there, awaiting its hour, if we would only let it in.
--
So a Whole slice of my life came back, but it didnt stop there! It keeps extending back further and further, and memories keep on coming, things that go back sixty years now, even beyond, seventy, seventy-five yearsthey are all coming back. And so it all has to be put in order.
Its quite odd, for this was not a personal consciousness, it was not someone remembering his lifethis is what I found most interesting; what came were pieces, little chunks of lifes construction, a collection of people and circumstances. And it is impossible to separate the individual from all that is around him, its clear! It all holds together like (if you change one thing, everything is changed) it holds together like an agglomerated mass.
I had seen this earlier from another angle. In the beginning, when I started having the consciousness of immortality and when I brought together this true consciousness of immortality and the human conception of it (which is entirely different), I saw so clearly that when a human (even quite an ordinary human, one Who is not a collectivity in himselfas is a writer, for example, or a philosopher or statesman) projects himself through his imagination into what he calls immortality (meaning an indefinite duration of time) he doesnt project himself alone but rather, inevitably and always, what is projected along with himself is a Whole agglomeration, a collectivity or totality of things which represent the life and the consciousness of his present existence. And then I made the following experiment on a number of people; I said to them, Excuse me, but lets say that through a special discipline or a special grace your life were to continue indefinitely. What you would most likely extend into this indefinite future are the circumstances of your life, this formation you have built around yourself that is made up of people, relationships, activities, a Whole collection of more or less living or inert things.
But that CANNOT be extended as it is, for everything is constantly changing! And to be immortal, you have to follow this perpetual change; otherwise, what will naturally happen is what now happensone day you will die because you can no longer follow the change. But if you can follow it, then all this will fall from you! Understand that what will survive in you is something you dont know very well, but its the only thing that can survive and all the rest will keep falling off all the time Do you still want to be immortal?Not one in ten said yes! Once you are able to make them feel the thing concretely, they tell you, Oh no! Oh no! Since everything else is changing, the body might as well change too! What difference would it make! But what remains is THAT; THAT is what you must truly hold on to but then you must BE THAT, not this Whole agglomeration. What you now call you is not THAT, its a Whole collection of things..
Formerly, that was my first stepa long time ago. Now its so very different I wonder how it was possible to have been so totally blind as to call that oneself at any moment in ones life! Its a collection of things. And what was the link by which that could be called oneself? Thats more difficult to find out. Only when you climb above do you come to realize that THAT is at work here, but it could work there as well, or as well here, or here, or here At times there is suddenly a drop of something (Oh, I saw that this morningit was like a drop, a little drop, but with SUCH an intense and perfect light ), and where THAT falls it makes its center and begins radiating out and acting. THAT is what can be called oneselfnothing else. And THAT precisely is what enabled me to live in such dreadfully uninteresting, such nonexistent circumstances. And at the moment when you ARE that, you see how that has lived and how that has used everything, not only in this body but in all bodies and through all time.
--
I often find leaving the balcony difficult. And its only this same gentleman (you know, the censor) Who starts telling me, Youre keeping them there in the rain just because youre in ecstasy; youre just letting them stand there drenched and getting a crick in the neck looking up in the air. Arent you going to let them go?When he insists too much, I go back inside.
Maybe thats why hes still there. Otherwise, if I forgot (Mother laughs)
0 1960-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Two nights ago (no, three the night before Darshan), I had one of those experiences that that leaves you pensive the Whole day
(silence)
--
But immediately, the following dayDarshan dayas the thing developed (you see, something was working inside), I could again turn my attention to the people Who were there. And oddly enough, just when you came, there was suddenly a kind of little shock, like an electric shock, and a spark leapt out. And at that moment the Power acted for perhaps a split second You see, there has been this bad karma, this old formation around you for a very long time, and it hadnt I recall telling you several years ago, I shall be able to cure such cases as yours only when the Supramental descends. And this feeling of incapacity, of something resisting, was still present, still aliveof not having the right power to dominate it. But just as you went by, for a second, there was this flash of like a spark when two electric wires touch. It was a golden spark, a resplendent lightzzzt! And it leapt out. Ah! I thought; its good.
That was it.
--
I havent told this to anyone until now, especially not to those Who take care and watch over me, for I dont want to terrify them. Besides, Im not so sure of their reactionsyou understand, if they started getting frightened, it would be terrible. So I dont tell them. But it has happened at least five or six times, usually in the morning before going down to the balcony, just when I dont have the time And it has to be done quickly, for I have to be ready on time!
Its very, very interesting. But then, you see, at such moments the concreteness of the Presence6concrete to the touch, really to the material touchis extraordinary!
--
This interests me, for these things do not at all enter through the mind (he doesnt receive a thing there, hes closed there). So in his letter he says that this thing or that is necessary (he describes it in his own words), and he adds, This is why we must be so grateful to have among us the the great Mother7 (as he puts it), the great Mother Who knows these things.Good! I said to myself. (It had to do with something specific concerning the capacity for discrimination in the outside world, the different qualities and different functions of different beings, all of which depends on ones inner construction, as it were.) So I see that even this, even these physical experiences, is received (and yet I hadnt tried, I had never tried to make him receive it); it merely works like this, you see (gesture of a widespread diffusion), and the experience is veryhow should I say?drastic, with a kind of (power of radiation). Imperative.
Original English.
0 1960-12-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A sort of unification is taking place [in you], as if you had become a more uniform Whole within-without. I dont know how to explain thisit feels more unified, more organizeduniform. Not some parts more developed and others less so, some more luminous and others less so; its much more uniform, and uniform even in the vibration, a kind of really a uniformity in all its movements, responses, vibrations, light. And this kind of powdering of the new light which I see is much more widespread. Its as if everything, everything what is happening is really a work of unifyingstabilizing, unifying. And this powdering of golden light has completely enveloped you, with this same blue light in your japa, with different intensities of powerboth are there. Like a unifying of the consciousness, as if all the less receptive elements were starting to open, thereby creating a much more homogeneous Whole. I dont know how your nights are, but
Not very conscious.
0 1960-12-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The problem appeared again to me very intensely when I read Sri Aurobindos The Yoga of Self-Perfection. I was confronted with a Whole formidable world to be transformedto transform what is already luminous is quite easy, but to transform that! ughthis stuff of life, so low and so coarse, so ordinary its much more difficult.1
For the last several days, Ive been at grips fighting with it. How can I stop this idiotic, coarse and above all defeatist automatism from constantly manifesting? Its truly an automatism; it doesnt respond to any conscious will, nothing. So what will it take to ? And its QUITE INTIMATELY related to the bodys illnesses (the old habits the body has of coming out of its rhythmic movement, of entering into confusion)the two things are very intimately linked.
0 1960-12-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Even stones are beautiful; they are always beautiful in one way or another. When life appeared, there were some forms that were a little difficult, but not to that extent, not like certain human mental creations. Of course, there may have been some animal species which were rather but they were more monstrous than actually ugly. And most probably, it only seems like that to our consciousness. But the mind And its the same for all these ideas of sin, of wrong, of all thatits a falsehood. But it was man Who invented falsehood, wasnt it? The mind invented falsehood: to deceive! to deceive! And its a curious fact that animals domesticated by man have also learned to lie!
The curve
--
This realm that Im now investigating, oh! I spend Whole nights visiting certain places, and there I meet people I know here materially [in the Ashram]. So many are PERFECTLY satisfied with their their infirmities, their incapacities, their ugliness, their powerlessness.
And they protest when you want them to change!
Even last night I went down into it It was so gray and dull and phew! Banal, lifeless. When they are told that, they retort, No, not at all! Things are quite all right as they are, its you Who is living in a dreamland!
Well get out of it one day.
--
Thats why it takes so long. Because those Who readily accept are they get encrusted and buried under it; they no longer move. And those Who see the future and what must be have a hard time accepting; they pull back, they kick and protestso they dont have any power.
***
0 1960-12-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For a while, there was a Muslim girl close to me (not a believer, but her origins were Muslim; in other words, she wasnt at all Christian) Who had a special fondness for Santa Claus! She had seen pictures of him, read some books, etc. Then one year while she was here, she got it into her head that Santa Claus had to bring me something. He has to bring you something for Christmas, she told me.
Try, I replied.
--
If I could only note all this down Its been so interesting all morning, right from the starton the balcony, then upstairs while walking for my japa! And it was on this same theme (experience of the speck of dust) This habit people have (especially in India, but more or less everywhere among those Who have a religious nature), this habit of doing all things religious with respect and compunction and no mixing of things, above all there should be no mixing; in some circumstances, at certain times, you MUST NOT think of God, for then it would be a kind of blasphemy.
Theres the religious attitude, and then theres ordinary life where people do thingsworking, living, eating, enjoying life; they regard these as the essentials, and as for the rest, well, when theres time they think about it. But what Sri Aurobindo brought down, precisely I remember at Tlemcen, Theon used to say that there was a Whole world of things, such as eating, for example, or taking care of your body, that should be done automatically, without giving it any importanceits not the time to think of things divine.(!) Thats what he preached. So you have the religious attitude of all the religious types, and then ordinary life I found both of them equally unsatisfactory. Then I came here and told Sri Aurobindo my feeling; I said that if someone is truly in union with the Divine, it CANNOT change no matter what he does (the quality of what youre doing may change, but the union cant change no matter what youre doing). And when he said that this was the truth, I felt a relief. And that feeling has stayed with me all through my life.
And now, all these different attitudes which individuals, groups and categories of men hold are coming from every direction (while Im walking upstairs) to assert their own points of view as the true thing. And I see that for myself, Im being forced to deal with a Whole mass of things, most of which are quite futile from an ordinary point of viewnot to mention the things of which these moral or religious types disapprove. Quite interestingly, all kinds of mental formations come like arrows while Im walking for my japa upstairs (Mother makes a gesture of little arrows in the air coming into her mental atmosphere from every direction); and yet, Im entirely in what I could call the joy and happiness of my japa, full of the energy of walking (the purpose of walking is to give a material energy to the experience, in all the bodys cells). Yet in spite of this, one thing after another comes, like this, like that (Mother draws little arrows in the air): what I must do, what I must answer to this person, what I must say to that one, what has to be done All kinds of things, most of which might be considered most futile! And I see that all this is SITUATED in a totality, and this totality I could say that its nothing but the body of the Divine. I FEEL it, actually, I feel it as if I were touching it everywhere (Mother touches her arms, her hands, her body). And all these things neither veil nor destroy nor divert this feeling of being entirely this a movement, an action in the body of the Divine. And its increasing from day to day, for it seems that He is plunging me more and more into entirely material things with the will that THERE TOO it must be done that all these things must be consciously full of Him; they are full of Him, in actual fact, but it must become conscious, with the perception that it is all the very substance of His being which is moving in everything
It was quite beautiful on the balcony this morning
0 1960-12-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Yes, its true Whos there, Who isnt, how he looks, Whos he with Oh!
(silence)
--
I was in my home, somewherea world Whose light is like a sun (golden with scarlet reflections); it was very beautiful. It was in a town, and my house was in that town. I wanted to take to someone some not presents, but things he needed. So I got everything together, prepared it all, and then loaded my arms with all the packages (I had taken my own time to arrange everything nicely), and I went out when the Whole town was completely deserted there was not a soul on the streets. A complete solitude. And such a sense of well-being, of light and force! Yes, really a kind of felicity, for no reason. And instead of weighing me down, it seemed as if my packages were pulling me! They pulled me on in such a way that each step was a joy, like a dance.
This lasted the Whole time I was crossing the town. Then I came to a border, right at the beginning of another part where I was to take my packages; there, just a little below me, I saw a house under construction the house belonging to the person to Whom I had to deliver these presents (the symbolism in all this, of course, is quite clear).
As I approached the house, but still from some distance, I suddenly saw some men busy at work. Then instantly instantly this road which was so vast, sunlit and smoothso smooth to the feet oh, it became the top level of a scaffolding. And what is more, this scaffolding was not very well made, and the closer I came the more complicated it gotthere were planks jutting out, beams off balance. In short, you had to watch every single step to keep from breaking your neck. I began getting annoyed. Moreover, my packages were heavy. They were heavy and they so saddled my arms that I was unable to hold onto anything and had constantly to do a balancing act. Then I began thinking, My God, how complicated this world is! And just at that moment, I saw a young person coming along, like a young girl dressed in European clothes, with a hat on her head all black! This young person had white skin, but her clothes were black, and she wore black shoes on her small white feet. She was dressed all in blackblack, all in black. Like complete unconsciousness. She also came carrying packages (many more than me), and she came hopping along the Whole length of the scaffolding, putting her feet just anywhere! My God, I said to myself, shes going to break her neck!But not at all! She was totally unconscious; she wasnt even aware that it was dangerous or complicateda total unconsciousness. But her unconsciousness is what allowed her to go on like that! I watched it all. Well, sometimes its good to be unconscious! Then she disappeared; she had only come to give me a demonstration (she neither saw me nor looked at me). And looking down at the workers, I saw that everything was getting more and more complicated, more and more, more and more and there wasnt even any ladder by which to get down. In other words, it was getting unbearable. Then something in me rebelled: Ah, no! Ive had enough of all thisits too stupid!
And IMMEDIATELY, I found myself down below, relieved of my packages. And everything was perfectly simple. (I had even brought the packages along without realizing it.) All, all was in order, very neat, very luminous, very simplesimply because I had said, Ah, no! Ive had enough of this business! Why all these stupid complications!5
--
There have been similar stories in dreams with X. I saw him when he was very young (his education, the ideas he had, how he was trained). And the same thing happened. I was with him but Ill tell you that another time6 And then at the end, Id had enough and I said, Oh, no! Its too ridiculous! and with that I left the house. At the door was a little squirrel sitting on his haunches making friendly little gestures towards me. Oh! I said, heres someone Who understands better!
But later I observed, I saw that this had helped drain him of all the weight of his past education. Very interesting Night after night, night after night, night after nightplenty of things! You could write novels about it all.
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Love, in its essence and in its origin, is like a white flame obliterating ALL resistances. You can have the experience yourself: whatever the difficulty in your being, whatever the weight of accumulated mistakes, the ignorance, incapacity, bad will, a single SECOND of this Lovepure, essential, suprememelts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the Whole burden is consumed.
Its easy to understand how someone Who has this experience can spread it and act upon others, since to have it you must touch the unique, supreme Essence of the Whole manifestation the Origin and the Essence, the Source and the Reality of all that is; then you immediately enter the realm of Unity where there is no more separation among individuals: its a single vibration that can repeat itself endlessly in outer forms.2
If you go high enough, you come to the Heart of everything. Whatever manifests in this Heart can manifest in all things. This is the great secret, the secret of divine incarnation in an individual form. For in the normal course of things, what manifests at the center is only realized in the outer form with the awakening and RESPONSE Of the will within the individual form. But if the central Will is constantly, permanently represented in one individual, he can then serve as an intermediary between that Will and all beings, and will FOR THEM. Whatever this being perceives and consciously offers to the supreme Will is replied to as if it came from each individual being. And if individuals happen to be in a more or less conscious and voluntary relationship with this representative being, their relationship increases his efficacy and the supreme Action can work in Matter in a much more concrete and permanent way. This is the reason for these descents of what could be called polarized consciousnesses that always come to earth for a particular realization, with a definite purpose and missiona mission decided upon before the actual embodiment. These mark the great stages of the supreme incarnations upon earth.
--
What I say to people depends entirely upon their inner state. Thats precisely why I had such enormous difficulty at the Playground3the atmosphere was so mixed! It was a STRUGGLE to find someone receptive so I could speak. And if Im in the presence of people Who understand nothing, I cant say a word. On the other hand, some people come prepared to receive and then suddenly it all comes but usually theres no tape-recorder!
I have replied endlessly, I have given all sorts of explanations about the organization of the School, about World Union,4 about the true way to organize industry (its true functioning)so many things! If all that were compiled we could publish brochures! Sometimes Ive spoken three-quarters of an hour non-stop to people Who listened with delight and were receptive but quite incapable of making a written report of it. At times like that we could have used one of your machines! But when things are organized in advance, it may well be that nothing comes out at allmentalizing stops the flow. If I is in front of me, I cant say anything to her because she doesnt understand. I already have trouble writing to herwhat I have to say is always brought down a bit; but if she were here in the room and I had to speak to her, nothing at all would come out!
No, when we feel like it and when she doesnt raise any question about an aphorismat least not an impossible questionwell do this: I will speak here, its much easier for me. This way things come that I havent seen before; while when I write like that, they are usually things Ive seen on other occasions (not that I try to recall them, they are there and simply come back). But when theres a new contact, something new always comes.
0 1961-01-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
50To hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God; yet he Who commits it glories in his superior virtue.
Do you have a question?
--
But if we had the vision of the Whole, if we were able to contain past, present and future simultaneously (as it is somewhere up above), then we would see how relative these things are and that its mainly the progressing evolutionary Force which gives us this will to reject; yet when these things still had their place, they were quite tolerable. However, to have this experience in a practical sense is impossible unless we have a total vision the vision that is the Supremes alone! Therefore, one must first identify with the Supreme, and then, keeping this identification, one can return to a consciousness sufficiently externalized to see things as they really are. But thats the principle, and in so far as we are able to realize it, we reach a state of consciousness where we can look at all things with the smile of a complete certainty that everything is exactly as it should be.
Of course, people Who dont think deeply enough will say, Oh, but if we see that things are exactly as they should be, then nothing will budge. But no! There isnt a fraction of a second when things arent moving: theres a continuous and total transformation, a movement that never stops. Only because its difficult for us to feel that way can we imagine that by our entering certain states of consciousness things would not change. Even if we entered into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and we along with them!
Ultimately, disgust, rebellion and anger, all movements of violence, are necessarily movements of ignorance and of limitation with all the weakness that limitation implies. Rebellion is a weakness, for its the feeling of an impotent will. When you feel, when you see that things are not as they should be, then you rebel against whatever is out of keeping with your vision. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no opportunity to rebel! You would always see that all things are as they should be! That is omnipotence.1 Then all these movements of violence become not only useless but profoundly ridiculous.
--
In this aphorism, Sri Aurobindo speaks of those Who hate sinners that one mustnt hate sinners.
Its the same problem seen from another angle, but the solution is the same.
--
Actually, what you hate in them is their self-righteousness, only that. After all, theyre right not to do evilthey cant be blamed for that! But whats hard to tolerate is their sense of superiority, the way they look down their noses at all these poor fellows Who are no worse than they!
Oh, I could cite a few shining examples!
Consider the case of a woman with many friends, and these friends are very fond of her for her special capacities, her pleasant company, and because they feel they can always learn something from her. Then all of a sudden, through a quirk of circumstances, she finds herself socially ostracizedbecause she may have gone off with another man, or may be living with someone out of wedlockall those social mores with no value in themselves. And all her friends (I dont speak of those Who truly love her), all her social friends Who welcomed her, Who smiled so warmly when passing her on the street, suddenly look the other way and march by without a glance. This has happened right here in the Ashram! I wont give the details, but it has happened several times when something conflicted with accepted social norms: the people Who had shown so much affection, so much kindness oh! Sometimes they even said, Shes a lost woman!
I must say that when this happens here. In the world at large it seems quite normal, but when this happens here it always gives me a bit of a shock, in the sense that I say to myself, So theyre still at that level!
Even those Who claim to be broad-minded, above these conventions, immediately fall right into the trap. And to ease their consciences they say, Mother wouldnt allow that. Mother wouldnt permit that. Mother wouldnt tolerate such a thing!to add a further inanity to the rest.
This state is very difficult to get out of. It is really Pharisaismthis sense of social dignity, this narrow-mindednessbecause no one with an atom of intelligence would fall into such a hole! Those Who have traveled through the world, for instance, and seen for themselves that social mores depend entirely upon climatic conditions, upon races and customs and still more upon the times, the epochthey are able to look at it all with a smile. But the self-righteous oooh!
This is a primary stage. As long as you havent gone beyond this condition, you are unfit for yoga. Because truly, no one in such a rudimentary state is ready for yoga.
0 1961-01-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is another case where peoplewithout knowing it or because they WANT to ignore italways pursue their personal interests, their preferences, their attachments, their concepts; people Who are not entirely consecrated to the Divine and make use of moral and yogic ideas to conceal their personal motives. These people doubly deceive themselves: not only do they deceive themselves through their outer activities, their relations with others, but they also deceive themselves about their personal motives; instead of serving the Divine they are serving their own egoism. And this happens constantly, constantly! One serves his own personality, his egoism, while pretending to serve the Divine. This is no longer even self-deception: its sheer hypocrisy.
This mental habit of always cloaking everything with a favorable appearance, of giving all movements a favorable explanation, is at times so flagrant that it can fool nobody but oneself (although it may occasionally be subtle enough to create an illusion). It is a sort of habitual self-exoneration, the habit of giving a favorable mental excuse, a favorable mental explanation for all one does, all one says, all one feels. For example, someone with no self-control Who strikes another in great indignation and is ready to call it divine wrath! Righteous2 is perfect, because righteous immediately introduces this element of puritanical moralitywonderful!
This power of self-deception, the minds craft in devising splendid justifications for any ignorance or folly whatsoever, is tremendous.
--
For Sri Aurobindo and Mother, the 'vital' represents the regions of consciousness or the centers of consciousness below the mind between the throat and the sex center, i.e. the Whole region of emotions, feelings, passions, etc., which constitute the various expressions of the Life-Energy.
Throughout the Agenda, words Mother originally spoke in English are italicized.
0 1961-01-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Youre the one Who should be asked that!
Im all right.
--
But they are furious! There is evidently a Whole alignment of forces (they must be vital forces) between here and my domain. Theyre furious! They set up explosions, demolitions. And I could see all the settings they were quite artificial, nothing real, but dangerous nonetheless.
All in all, it was rather amusing.
--
Yes, I am disrupting their work I know perfectly well that I am disrupting their domination of the world! All these vital beings have taken possession of the Whole of Matter (Mother touches her body)life and action and have made it their domain, this is evident. But they are beings of the lower vital, for they seemed artificial they didnt express any higher form, but an entire range of artificial mechanisms, artificial will, artificial organization, all deriving from their own imagination and not at all from a higher inspiration.1 The symbol was very clear.
And I saw my own domain through them and through it all; I saw my domain: I can see it!, I said. But no sooner would I start on my way than the path would be lost, I no longer saw it, I couldnt see anymore where I was going. It became almost impossible to get my bearings there: hundreds and thousands of people, thingsutter confusion. An incoherent immensity and violent, what violence!
--
I simply consented to stay there. You will have all you need, stay here quietly. And what beautiful things she had, lovely things! They were unused and dusty. (It was surely the symbol of ancient realizationsrealizations of the ancient Rishis, things like that. Who knows?) They were first class, but completely neglected and thick with dust, like material objects left unusedwhich no one knew HOW to use. She put them at my disposal: Look, look, let me show you! There was a tremendous accumulation of things, piled in such great confusion that one couldnt see. Yet the marvel of it was that when she led me to a corner to show me something, everything immediately moved aside and order was restored, so that the object she wanted to show me stood out all by itself. And oh, a thing of beauty! Made of pink marble! A pink marble bathtub of a shape I didnt recognizenot Roman, not antique (not modern, far from it!)how beautiful it was! And whenever she wanted to show me something in this untidy and cluttered room full of objects piled one on top of another, they would organize themselves, take their proper place, and all became neat. You will just have to dust them off a bit, she said. (Mother laughs)
But Im not surprised it came down on you.
--
Something was obviously bent on preventing me from going down for the distribution.4 But by an act of will I went down. I will do it, I said. But it was difficult. There were moments when it sidled up to me: Now youre going to faint, and then, Now your legs will no longer be able to walk. Now. It kept coming like that. So I kept repeating the japa the Whole time, and it was touch-and-go right up to the end. Finally I couldnt distinguish people, I saw only shapes, forms passing by, and not clearly. When the distribution was over, I got up (I knew I had to get up), I stood up without flinching and stepped down from the chair without faltering. But I was not careful and when I turned away from the light in the room to go towards the staircasean abrupt blackout. Not the blackout of a faintmy eyes no longer saw. I saw only shadows. Ah! I said to myself, where is the step?! And to avoid missing it, I clutched the railing. What a commotion that made! Champaklal came rushing up, thinking I was about to fall!
Anyhow.
--
Evidently all the vital forces Who have taken the habit of ruling the earth (last night it had the proportions of the earth, it wasnt universal) are the very ones Who refuse to listen; they dont at all like what I am doing.
You see, personal surrender and devotion is an excellent solution for the individual, but it doesnt work for the collectivity. For example, as soon as I am alone and lying on my bedpeace! (Ah, I forgot! They had invented yet another thing: making my heartbeats irregular. Every three or four beats it would stop; then it would start up again, pounding as if I had been struck. Three, four beats, a faint little beat, then stop then, bang! Blow after blow. One more of their extraordinary inventions!) But, as soon as I stretch out and make a total surrender of all the cellsno more activity, nothingeverything goes well. But I am well aware that this surrender has an effect on the action only to the extent that the Supreme Lord has decided upon the action, and those movements stretch over long periods of time5: all sorts of things may happen before the final Victory is won. Because, for us, the scale is very small; even if it were of terrestrial proportions, it would be a very small scale; but on a universal scale. These forces have their place and their action, their universe, and as long as their place and their action are maintained, they will be here. So before their action can be exhausted or become useless, many things can happen.
--
And this is the confusion made by all those people Who believed that their what they called their personal salvation was the salvation of the worldits not true at all! It isnt trueits a PERSONAL salvation.
(silence)
But all of that is wonderfully, accurately expressed and EXPLAINED in Savitri. Only you must know how to read it! The entire last part, from the moment she goes to seek Satyavan in the realm of Death (which affords an occasion to explain this), the Whole description of what happens there, right up to the end, where every possible offer is made to tempt her, everything she must refuse to continue her terrestrial labor it is my experience EXACTLY.
Savitri is really a condensation, a concentration of the universal Mother the eternal universal Mother, Mother of all universes from all eternityin an earthly personality for the Earths salvation. And Satyavan is the soul of the Earth, the Earths jiva. So when the Lord says, he Whom you love and Whom you have chosen, it means the earth. All the details are there! When she comes back down, when Death has yielded at last, when all has been settled and the Supreme tells her, Go, go with him, the one you have chosen, how does Sri Aurobindo describe it? He says that she very carefully takes the SOUL of Satyavan into her arms, like a little child, to pass through all the realms and come back down to earth. Everything is there! He hasnt forgotten a single detail to make it easy to understand for someone Who knows how to understand. And it is when Savitri reaches the earth that Satyavan regains his full human stature.
These seem to be the forces ruling the subconscious mechanisms or reactions of the body: all the automatism produced by evolution and atavismwhat might be termed evolutionary habits. This is the 'descending path,' which started forty years earlier, as Mother said (or the 'physical plunge' referred to by Sri Aurobindo), leading to the pure cellular consciousness.
--
Later, on the 27th, Mother remarked: 'I was reading about this very thing yesterday in The Secret of the Veda, in the first hymn translated by Sri Aurobindo (the reference is to the colloquy between Indra and Agastya, Rig Veda I.170cf. The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., X.241 ff.), and it helped me put my finger on the problem. In this hymn there is a dispute between Indra and the Rishi because the Rishi wants to progress too quickly without first passing through Indra [the god of the Mind], and Indra stops him; finally they reach an agreement. Sri Aurobindo's commentary is quite interesting: when one has the INDIVIDUAL power to go directly, but neglects the steps which are still necessary for the Whole, for the universal movement, then one is stopped short. That is absolutely my experience.'
***
0 1961-01-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I must say that after this, when I read The Secret of the Veda as I do each evening. In fact, I am in very close contact with the entire Vedic world since Ive been reading that book: I see beings, hear phrases. It comes up in a sort of subliminal consciousness, a lot of things are from the ancient Vedic tradition. (By the way, I have even come to see that the pink marble bathtub I told you about last time, which Nature had offered me, belongs to the Vedic world, to a civilization of that epoch.3) There werethere are alwaysSanskrit words coming up, sentences, bits of dialogue. This is of interest, because I realized that what I had seen the other day (I told you about it) and then what I saw yesterday that Whole domainwas connected to what the Vedas call the dasyus the panis and the dasyus4the enemies of the Light. And this Force that came was very clearly a power like Indras5 (though something far, far greater), and at war with darkness everywhere, like this (Mother sketches in space a whirling force touching points here and there throughout the world), this Force attacked all darkness: ideas, people, movements, events, whatever made stains, patches of shadow. And it kept on going, a formidable power, so great that my hands were like this (Mother clenches her fists). Later when I read (I happened to be reading just the chapter concerning the fight against the dasyus), this proximity to my own experience became interesting, for it was not at all intellectual or mental there was no idea, no thought involved.
The remainder of the evening passed as usual. I went to bed, and at exactly a quarter to twelve I got up with the feeling that this presence in me had increased even further and really become rather formidable. I had to instill a great deal of peace and confidence into my body, which felt as though it wasnt so easy to bear. So I concentrated, I told my body to be calm and to let itself go completely.
--
And it went on like that. After this, Slowly, Still WITHOUT MOVING, everything went back into each of the different centers of the being. (Ah, let me say parenthetically that it wasnt AT ALL the ascent of a force like the ascent of the Kundalini! It had absolutely nothing to do with the Kundalini movement and the centers, it wasnt that at all.) But while re-descending, it was as though WITHOUT LEAVING THIS STATE, without leaving this state which remained conscious ALL the time, this supreme Consciousness began to reactivate the different centers: first here (Mother points to the center above the head and then touches the crown of the head, the forehead, throat, chest, etc.) then there, there, there. At each there was a pause while this new realization organized everything. It organized and made the necessary decisions, sometimes down to the most minute details: what had to be done in this case or said in that case; and all of that TOGETHER, at once, not one by one but seen entirely as a Whole. It kept on descending I noted many things, it was extremely interestingdown and down, farther and farther, right to the depths. Everything went on at the same time,7 simultaneously, and at the same time this supreme Consciousness was organizing everything separately.8
This descending reorganization ended exactly when the clock struck one. At that moment I knew that I had to go into trance for the work to be perfected, but until then I was wide awake.
--
In the body now, there is a very clear not only a certitude, but a feeling that a certain omnipotence is not far away, and that very soon when it sees (it sees it! There is only one It in this Whole affair, which is neither he nor she nor), when it sees that something must be, it automatically will be.
There is still a long, long way to go. But the first step on the way has been taken.
--
Does a servant come to your house? No one is sick in his family? Because what happens is that they dont want to lose their jobs or their salary, so they dont warn you. They may have smallpox or measles or chickenpox and they dont take the slightest care to wash or change their clothes; they come to your house and of course they bring along the disease. So the number of cases keeps multiplying and multiplying. I have been meaning to tell Pavitra to be careful of that little character Who works for himeven ordinarily I dont like to see him running around here. Its strange how it sullies the atmosphereoh, you cant imagine! Almost all of them, almost all!
Its not at all the same as in the West, in Europe or America, not at all. Basically, the people in those countries are made of the same stuff as we are. But here thats not the case, because for centuries it never changeda Brahmin, for example, always remained a Brahmin, a Kshatria was always a Kshatria and all his servants were Kshatrias. It stayed in the family, in the sense that in each caste the servantsoften poor relativesbe longed to that same caste. From a social standpoint this might not have been too pleasant, but as far as atmosphere was concerned, it was very good. This was changed, however, first by the Muslim invasion, and then especially by the British.
The British, you see, were served only by pariahs (in fact, its we Europeans Who named them that!). But they were not actually pariahs by birth, they became pariahs out of HABIT.
I have studied the problem very closely, because when you come from Europe you bring all your European ideas with you and you dont know or understand a thing about the way it really is. I immediately came into contact with Brahmin servants and pariah servants, but I didnt know that some were Brahmins and others pariahs, nobody had told me anything; it depended upon the people I was with and the places I went. But the contact, the atmosphere (gesture of fingering the air). You know, I didnt even need to touch them physically! There was such a difference that I asked Sri Aurobindo, But what is it? So he explained the Whole thing to me.
You see, originally these pariahs were people Who took their delight (their pleasure) in filth and falsehood, in crime, in violence and robberyit was a joy for them. They had castes among themselves; there is still a caste of brigands nearby I once went to their village to have a lookpeople Who always keep a dagger on them, they love to play with daggers. They stea l not so much out of need as out of pleasure. And dirty-they abhor cleanliness! And they will lie even if they have to contradict themselves fifteen minutes later, for the sheer delight of lying.
What an atmosphere it creates! Its palpable (Mother fingers the air).
I had a woman here with me Who was born among these people. She had been adopted by Thomas (the French musician Who composed the comic-opera, Mignon). They had come to India and found this little girl Who at the time was very young; she was only thirteen, quite pretty and nice. So they took her back to France with them as a nanny and treated her as one of their own children. She was cared for, educated, given everything, treated absolutely like one of the family; she remained there for twenty years. Moreover, she was gifted with clairvoyance and could tell fortunes by reading palms, which she did remarkably well. She even worked for a while in a caf, the Moulin-Rouge or a similar place, as a Hindu Fortune Teller! What a maharani she was, with her magnificent jewelsand beautiful, as well. In short, she had completely left all her old habits behind.
Then she returned to India and I took her in with me. I continued to treat her almost as a friend and I helped her to develop her gifts. Mon petit,10 how dirty she started to get, lying, stealing, and absolutely needlesslyshe had money, she was well treated, she had everything she needed, she ate what we didthere was absolutely no reason! When I finally asked her, But why, why!? (she was no longer young at this point), she replied, When I came back here, it took hold of me again; its stronger than I am. That was a revelation for me! Those old habits had been impervious to education.
--
There was a time when we had only a minimum of servants here and they always remained apartwe never had an epidemic. I dont know for how many years it wasyears and years while Sri Aurobindo was herewe never had a single case of an epidemic disease. It began when people started coming here with children; necessarily they brought their servants along with them, Who went to the bazaar and even to the movies and here and there. Then everything came in.
But now the situation is bad. There are something like thirty cases of measles, four or five of smallpox and some chickenpox as well. You must be careful. I need you in good health, otherwise well have to stop everything!
There are places where it happens like that: suddenly everything stopsno more school, no more mail, no more trains. I remember a poor little village in Japan where they had a flu epidemic, the first of its kind. They didnt know what it was and the Whole village fell ill. It was winter, the village was snowed in and there was no more communication with the outside (the mail came only once every fifteen days). The postman arrived and everyone was dead, buried beneath the snow.
I was there in Japan when it happened.
--
Satprem later asked Mother what she meant by these 'things,' and Mother replied: 'For example, there was a certain man's attitude with respect to life and to the Divine, and what he thought of himself, and so forth. You see, what came was a Whole range of characters and one particular action of one man, and then something else came up.... How to explain? ... These are POINTS OF WORK which come to me, things that present themselves in the atmosphere for me to seethings I see and which have to be acted upon.'
A few days later, Mother rectified: 'I have looked at the experience again and realized that it's not Vedic but pre-Vedic. The experience put me into contact with a civilization prior to the Vedas the Rishis and the Vedas are a kind of transition between that vanished civilization and the Indian civilization which grew out of the Vedic Age. It was yesterday [January 26] that I perceived this, and it was quite interesting.'
In the Vedas, the panis and dasyus represent beings or forces hidden in subterranean caves Who have stolen the 'Riches' or the 'Lights', symbolized by herds of cows. With the help of the gods, the Aryan warrior must recover these lost riches, the 'sun in the darkness,' by igniting the flame of sacrifice. It is the path of subterranean descent.
Indra represents the king of the gods, the master of mental power freed from the limitations and obscurities of the physical consciousness.
--
Later, Mother added: 'All the experiences took place one after the other, but the new experience did not cancel the preceding one. The Consciousness this supreme Unity that I hadremained all the time, to the very end, even while the other centers were awakening. And each center that awakened was a kind of addition, taking away nothing from what had come before. So at the end it was all simultaneous: a kind of global consciousness total and simultaneousof everything.... You see, while rising up (one is obliged to say "rising" and "descending" for otherwise one would never be understood), while "rising up" to reach this supreme Consciousness, all the rest was annulled, there was only That. When the supreme Consciousness was realized, it remained ALL the time, continuously, to the very end, it did not move; but meanwhile, the other centers began to awaken one after another. And each awakening center assumed its place but canceled nothing either of what had come before or of what was about to come, so that when I reached the end, all of it together was a simultaneous Whole the Supreme Consciousness.' When Satprem asked if this Supreme Consciousness was the 'New Consciousness,' Mother replied, 'Not "new!" One can't say "new"Supreme Consciousness.'
This entire experience and Mother's insistence that it all happened 'without moving,' unlike the experience of the ascent of the Kundalini, suggests that it is the supramental consciousness concealed in the depths of the cells, that somehow emerges and traverses all the layers until the junction is made with the most material body-consciousness.
0 1961-01-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(On the moralistic reactions of someone Who thought that certain acts 'angered' God:)
They are only too eager to believe that God can get angry with them! I try to dispel this notion as much as I can, because its not trueit isnt true.
--
I was perfectly conscious (now when I say I, it refers to my body, I am not speaking of the Whole higher consciousness), the body was perfectly conscious of its suffering, the reason for its suffering, the cause of its suffering, everything and it did not suffer. You understand, the two perceptions were there together: the body saw the disorder, saw the suffering just as it would have felt it a few weeks earlier, it saw all that (saw, knew I dont know how to express itit was conscious, it was aware) and it did not suffer. The two awarenesses were absolutely simultaneous.
There is now a kind of VERY PRECISE knowledge of the Whole inner mechanism for all thingsand what has to be done materially. This is developing, as a flower blossoms: you see one petal open and then another and then another; it is proceeding like that, slowly, taking its time. Its the same process for the Power.
To illustrate this, an interesting thing came upyesterday, I think. (All these experiences come to show me the difference, as if to give proof of the change.) Someone had had a dream about me whispered to him by the adverse forces for specific reasons (I wont go into the details). He was much affected by it, so he wrote down the dream and gave it to me. I was carrying his letter along with all the others, as I usually do, but suddenly I knew I had to read it right away: I read it. Then I saw the Whole thing with such clarity, precision, accuracy: how it had come about, how the dream had been produced, its effect the Whole functioning of all the forces. As I read along and it went on unfolding, I did what was necessary for him (he was present at the time) in order to undo what the adverse forces had done. Then at the end, when I had finished, said everything, explained what it was all about and what had to be done, something SO CATEGORICAL came into me (I cannot verbalize this kind of experience, it is what I call the difference in power: something categorical). I took the letter, uttered a few words (which I wont repeat) and said, You see, its like this: so much for that, and I ripped the letter a first time. Then, thats for that, I tore it a second time and so on. I ripped it up five times and the fifth time I saw that their power was destroyed.
I have done these things beforeits a knowledge I already hadand it always had its effect when I did them; its not that I am passing from powerlessness to power, not at all. But its this kind of yes, something definite, absolutea kind of absolute in vision, in knowledge, in action and ABOVE ALL in powera kind of absolute that doesnt need to conquer obstacles and resistances, but ANNULS the resistance automatically. Then I saw that something had truly changed.
--
Well, yesterday I saw R. He was asking me questions about his work and particularly about the knowledge of languages (hes a scholar, you know, and very familiar with the old traditions). This put me in contact with that Whole world and I began speaking to him a little about what I had already said to you concerning my experience with the Vedas. And all at once, in the same [absolute] way as I told you, when I entered into contact with that world a Whole domain seemed to open up, a Whole field of knowledge from the standpoint of languages, of the Word, of the essential Vibration, that vibration which would be able to reproduce the supramental consciousness. It all came, so clear, so clear, luminous, indisputable but unfortunately there was no tape recorder!
It was about the Word, the primal sound. Sri Aurobindo speaks of it in Savitri: the essence of the Word and how it will express itself, how it will bring in the possibility of a supramental expression that will take the place of languages. I began by speaking to him about the different languages, their limitations and possibilities; and I warned him against the deformations imposed on languages with the idea of making them a more flexible means of expressing something else. I told him how completely ridiculous it all was, and that it didnt correspond at all to the truth. Then little by little I began ascending to the Origin. So yesterday again, I had this same experience: a Whole world of knowledge, of consciousness and of CERTAINTYprecluding the least possibility of contradiction, discussion, or opposition; the possibility DOES NOT EXIST, it doesnt exist. And the mind was absolutely silent and immobile, listening with obvious pleasure because these things had never before come into my consciousness; I had never been concerned with them in that way. It was completely newnot new in principle but completely new in action.
The experiences are multiplying.
0 1961-01-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But otherwise. Some of the things you note down I just put away. But some I show to Nolini (of them all, Nolini is the one Who can best understand). I give him certain things to read, but otherwise, no. It is completely different between us, as I told you completely different. If you benefit from it, so much the better! If it helps you in your inner development, good, I have no objectionon the contrary. Its quite natural, the natural consequence of our meetings.
But if while speaking with Sujata you feel that something might help her, I have no objection to your telling hersimply say that its between the two of you.
0 1961-01-31, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This ought to be noted down, because its important. It has seemed all the more important to me these last two days. Beginning yesterday evening, there was a Whole series of experiences, and this morning I came to a certain conclusion, Whose starting point, I realized, was that experience I had upon coming out of trance.
The rest will come later.
0 1961-01-Undated, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A moment comesit comes in flashes and doesnt easily remainwhen its the All Who thinks, the All Who knows, the All Who feels, the All Who lives. Theres not evennot even the feeling that you have reached this state.
Then it is good.
But up to this point there is still a small corner [of the I] somewheregenerally the observer, the witness Who is watching.
(silence)
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now, according to Theon, Jehovah was the chief of the Asuras,6 the supreme Asura, the egoistic God Who wanted to dominate everything and keep everything under his control. And of course this act made him furious, for it enabled mankind to become gods through the power of an evolution of consciousness. And thats why he banished them from Paradise.
Although told in a childish manner, theres a great deal of truth in this story, a great deal.
--
One could almost say that of all animals, the serpent is the most sensitive to hypnotic or magnetic power. If you have it (magnetic power comes from the most material vital), you can easily gain a mastery over snakes; all the people Who like snakes have it and use it to make snakes obey them. Thats how I got out of my encounter with the cobra at Tlemcen7do you know the story? Theon had told me about this power and I was aware of it in myself, so I was able to make the cobra obey and he left. Afterwards (Ive told this story, too), I was visited by the King of Serpents I mean the spirit of the species. He came to me in Tlemcen after this and another incident when I helped a cat overpower a little asp (there are asps over there like Cleopatras, very dangerous)a big russet angora cat. At first it started to play with the asp, but then naturally grew furious. The asp struck at the cat, but the cat leapt aside with such swiftness that the asp missed it (I watched this going on for more than ten minutes, it was extraordinary). Just as the snake darted by, the cat would swat at it with all his claws outand the asp got scratched each time, so that little by little it ran out of energy, and at the end. I stopped the cat from eating it that part was disgusting!
Then after these two incidents, I received a visit one night from the King of Serpents. He was wearing a superb crown on his headsymbolic, of course, but anyway, he was the spirit of the species. He had the appearance of a cobra, and he was wonderful! A formidable beast, and wonderful! He said he had come to make a pact with me: I had demonstrated my power over his species, so he wanted to come to an understanding. All right, I said, what do you propose? I not only promise that serpents wont harm you, he replied, but that they will obey you. But you must promise me something in return: never to kill one of them. I thought it over and said, No, I cant make this promise, because if ever one of yours attacks one of mine (a being that depends upon me), my pact with you could not stop me from protecting him. I can assure you that I have no bad feelings and no intention of killingkilling is not on my program! But I cant commit myself, because it would restrict my freedom of decision. He left without replying, so it remains status quo.
--
How many, many experiences there were during those days at Tlemcen! Surely youve heard them. Were you there when I told the story about the big toad? A huge toad, covered with warts. No? The sitting room was upstairs in Theons house (the house was built on a hillside) and it was connected by large open doors to a small terrace that sat almost on top of the hill. I played the piano in this room every day. And one day, what did I see hopping in through the open bay windows but an enormous black toadenormous! He sat down on his backside right in the entrance and puffed up his throat: poff! poff! And for the Whole time I played, he stayed there going Poff! poff!, as though in a state of delight! When I finished, I turned around and he gave me one last Poff! and hopped away. It was comical!
Theon also taught me how to turn aside lightning.
--
And do you know how he received me when I arrived there? It was the first time in my life I had traveled alone and the first time I had crossed the Mediterranean. Then there was a fairly long train ride between Oran and Tlemcenanyway, I managed rather well: I got there. He met me at the station and we set off for his place by car (it was rather far away). Finally we reached his estatea wonder! It spread across the hillside overlooking the Whole valley of Tlemcen. We arrived from below and had to climb up some wide pathways. I said nothingit was truly an experience from a material standpoint. When we came in sight of the house, he stopped: Thats my house. It was red! Painted red! And he added, When Barley came here, he asked me, Why did you paint your house red? (Barley was a French occultist Who put Theon in touch with France and was his first disciple.) There was a mischievous gleam in Theons eyes and he smiled sardonically: I told Barley, Because red goes well with green! With that, I began to understand the gentleman. We continued on our way uphill when suddenly, without warning, he spun around, planted himself in front of me, and said, Now you are at my mercy. Arent you afraid? Just like that. So I looked at him, smiled and replied, Im never afraid. I have the Divine here. (Mother touches her heart.)
Well, he really went pale.
--
One day I will find his photo and show it to you; he is there with a big dog he called Little Boy, a dog that could exteriorizehe would dream and go out of his body! This dog had a kind of adoration for me. (I should mention that at a fixed time in the afternoons I used to meditate and go into trance. When it was finished I would go out walking with Theon, and the dog always came with us, usually coming to fetch me in my room.) One day I was lying on a divan in trance when I felt his cold muzzle nudging my hand to wake me. I opened my eyes no dog. Yet I had positively, clearly felt his cold muzzle. So I got ready, went downstairs, and Who did I find fast asleep on the landing but Little Boyhe was in trance as well! He had come to wake me in his sleep. When I reached the landing he woke up, shook himself and trotted off.
It was an interesting life.
--
Who are you?
The Lord of the Snow.
--
I can assure you that you are well fastened, very well indeed; you are automatically caught up in my Whole forward movement. So dont worry. Begin your book on Sri Aurobindo.
But first I would have to reread everything!
0 1961-02-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One is very arduous: it is a severe and continuous tapasya. It is the way of the strong Who are predestined for it.
The other is to find something worth concentrating upon that diverts your attention from your small, personal self. The most effective is a big ideal, but there are innumerable things that enter into this category. Most commonly, people choose marriage, because it is the most easily available (Mother laughs). To love somebody and to love children makes you busy and compels you to forget your own self a little. But it is rarely successful, because love is not a common thing.
--
So it would seem that if one wants to use his individuality, his body, to transform the Whole that is, if one wants to use his bodily presence to act upon the universal corporeal substance theres no end to it. No end to the difficulties, no end to the battle BATTLE!
(silence)
Those Who try to lead a spiritual life have always been compared to warriors (there are classic writings on this subject), and one must truly be a fighterfighter is more exact than warrior because you wage war against no one: everything wages war against you! Everything (Mother makes a gesture like an avalanche falling upon her) and with such savage opposition!
Ah, well.
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night I had a dream about you that made a vivid impression on me. Its probably absurd, but it was so real! You had called me because you were going to leave your body: you had decided to leave and you wanted somehow to say good-bye. It was so real! I came to you and for a moment you placed my head on your knees, and I was filled with light; it was very tender. But at the same time, I knew you were saying good-bye, you were going to leave your body, and I wept in my dream. Then I went to sit in a corner because there were other people Who probably had come to see you as well. I remained in that corner, strickenit seemed so real, you understand! Just then, aman I didnt know entered the room (I knew he was French), a stranger dressed all in black, and he started making a loud commotion. He was smoking a pipe,2 a very coarse man, and he wanted to make all the people there, the disciples, get out of the room .3 It was so real! I awoke with a start and almost cried aloud, Ah, its a dream! Its only a dream!
Oh, it was that real!
--
It all began with some extremely violent attacks. So if your dream is not premonitory, then it must be the result of their formation, by which they intend to disseminate the conviction everywhere, as much as possible, that this is the end. Two years ago, when I had to retire to my room, a formidable campaign was set into operation upon all the Ashram people; and all those Who were a little receptive, either in dreams or through an openness to suggestions, heard it clearly announced: On the 9th of December of this year [1958], Mother will leave. Theres no doubt about it, its sure. It was said to me as well: This will be the end, you will leave. It was repeated to everybody, everybody, a great many people heard itthey were virtually awaiting it. And this is why (you know how extremely ill I was at the time, I was really ill), this is why I didnt react, but all the same I didnt go to the lake [the lake estate where Mother was to have gone on the 9th of December], because I told myself, If anything happens there, it will be awkward I had better not go. But still I knew it wasnt true, I knew it.
Now this kind of attack has stopped, it is no longer like that. But there are beings Who send dreams. For example, some dreams were sent to Z ( Who, as you know, is quite clairvoyant), in which she was told I would be broken to pieces. She was very upset and I had to intervene. Is your dream of this nature, or are you being forewarned? I dont know, I cant say. If the doctor were asked, perhaps he would say that if it continues like this, obviously (you see, one thing after another is getting disorganized), if it continues in this way, how long can the body last?
But this body feels so strongly that it exists ONLY because the divine Power is in it. And constantly, for the least thing, it has only one remedy (it doesnt think of resting, of not doing this or that, of taking medicine), its sole remedy is to call and call the Supremeit goes on repeating its mantra. And as soon as it quietly repeats its mantra, it is perfectly content. Perfectly content.
--
Two nights ago, I saw a formation of illness over the entire Ashram, a kind of adverse formation trying to prevent me from leaving my room, and I had to hide to get out, leave clandestinely. Oh, what a terrible atmosphere, so heavy, so grayeverybody was ill. And this formation had some actual effects because many people fell ill Who normally never do. It is an adverse formation and theres no reason to concede its victory; its simply a force which doesnt want us to succeed, of courseso we need not pay attention.
The trouble is, if I were thirty or forty years old, people wouldnt be affected. But unfortunately they think about how old I am all the time and it creates a bad atmosphere. After all, they keep saying, Mother is old and. All the usual nonsense.
But I know differently and so does my bodyto me its all foolishness and has no importance. For instance, when Vinoba Bhave came to see me4 (the man Who takes care of poor people), he looked at me and said, Oh, youll live a hundred years! And I simply said, Yes, it all seemed so natural. At that moment, there wasnt even (how to put it?) the least intimation of a doubt. Of course its a clich, but nevertheless, he said it; afterwards he told people that this was what he had felt. And it seems completely natural I know if my body can last till its a hundred (a little less than twenty years more), then we will be on the other side the difficulty will be over.
I rather feel that your dream is another part of this present mass attack, but.
--
(After a long silence) This would rather indicate those Who disapprove of my non-asceticism. It would seem to originate from those particular forces.
You see, theres a curious fluctuation possibly indicating that your dream is part of the present attack which continues with such violence. The night before last, between midnight and half-past, there was a formidable attack. When I emerged from it, I felt that something had lifted, a victory had been won and that the bodys condition had improved. It happens like that, the horizon clears and this Certainty comes with. (The presence is always hereSri Aurobindo and I are together almost every night but the night when I saw that formation, the illness spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was quite sick in his bed, just as I saw him in 1950.) So when it lifts, all is well: once again there is harmony, there is joy, there is force and again the Whole thing continues, the effort continues, consciously. Yet there is a kind of fluctuation: it will go on like that for a few moments or a few hours and then suddenly everything becomes muddled again and I am beset by a fatigue. A fatigue which is I cant say almost unbearable, because nothing in the consciousness feels it to be unbearable but it makes me like this (Mother clenches her fist tightly in a tension to hold on).
For example, at five-thirty in the evening, after Ive spent an hour and a half here with people, its a labor to climb the stairs; and by the time I get upstairs, I feel strained to the breaking point. Then I begin to walk (I dont stop, I dont rest), I immediately begin to walk with my japa, and within half an hour, pfft! it has lifted.
--
The Whole disorder evidently originates from the subconscient and inconscient; all the more so as it came with various indications (sent by the hostile forces but this can always be useful, provided you are careful) saying, Yes, everything is going well in your higher centers, but(because the different points of attack have clearly followed the order of the centers). Four or five days ago, or maybe a week, before this latest difficulty occurred, I saw little beings coming out of the subconscient and saying, Ah! Your legs havent had any trouble for a long time! Its the turn of the lower centers! I swept it all away, of course, but.
Taken this way, it could be an indication that all this needs a somewhat brutal preparation in order to be put in the necessary condition.
--
No, no I know that! I tell you, it can only be one of two things: either a good kick from the Enemy Who is still trying to find a support in someones mentality, or else premonitory.
I certainly hope not!
--
Something from that experiencean effect, a vibratory effect, so to speakhas not left. But the totality of the experience is not here the Whole time, its not established. I had a reminder of it one night, but not for very long; all at once, for a brief moment, this same vibration came, and my entire body was nothing other than this Vibration.
It didnt last longer than a quarter of an hour and it wasnt as total.
--
Kali symbolizes the destroying or warrior-like aspect of the universal Mother: it is she Who severs all bonds ... out of love.
The 'pipe' is obviously symbolic.
0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Whats natural also and annoyingis that people know nothing, understand nothing, even those Who see me all the time, like the doctor. He still hasnt been able to understand and he suddenly grew worried, thinking I was on my way to the other side! All this makes a mess of the atmosphere it just doesnt help! Their faith is not sufficiently (how to put it?) enlightened for them to keep still and simply say, Well, we shall see, without questioning. They are not beyond questioning and this complicates matters.
I have a feeling (but these are old ideas) that if I were all alone somewhere and didnt have to look after these people and things, it would be easier. But that would not be the TRUE thing. For when I had the experience [of January 24], all that is normally under my care was present: the Whole earth seemed to be present at the experience. There is no individuality (Mother indicates her body). I have difficulty finding an individuality now, even in my own body. What I do find in this body are the subconscious vibrations (conscious as well as subconscious) of a WORLD, a Whole world of things. So it can be done ONLY on a large scale, otherwise its the same old story but then its not the power HERE [in matter]one simply quits this world. Oh, these people cant imagine what it is! They have made such a fuss over their departure. They have wanted us to believe it was something quite extraordinary. But its infantile, its childs play, its nothing at all to quit this world! One simply goes poff!, like diving into watera little kick and one resurfaces, and thats all there is to it, its done (Mother laughs).
And the same goes for their stories about attachments and desiresmy god! Theres nothing to it! Imagine, with anything concerning my body, through all this horror of the subconscient, NOT ONCE have I had to bear the consequence of a desire; I have always had to bear the consequences of the battle against lifes unconscious and malicious resistances, but not once has something come up like that (gesture of something resurging from below) to tell me, You see! You had a desire, now heres the result of it! Not oncevery, very sincerely.
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Darshan went rather well, much better than I was expecting; but the following two days it was difficult here [in the body]. Then one night (I dont remember which), I I cant say grumbled, but (it wasnt my body grumbling, it is very docile and doesnt protest), but I sometimes find that well, I found it a little exaggerated that day. All the same, I said, this may be demanding a bit too much of it! And then (Mother laughs) the Whole night through, each time I awoke and looked (not with my physical eyes), I saw serpents! They were drawn up straight in a circlemagnificent cobras with white bellies, pearl gray backs and flecks of gold on their hoods! They surrounded me, watching, exactly as though they were saying, All the necessary energy is there! You neednt worry! So I concluded that this Whole affair11 must have its utilityit cant be simply the bodys lack of plasticity and incapacity to receive. It must have a usefulness but what? I havent understood. Perhaps I will get the explanation later, once its over.
And the next afternoon, I closed my eyes while I was bathing and what did I see but an enormous, magnificent cobra! It gazed at me, almost smiling, and stuck out its tongue! Good, I said, then everything is all right! (laughing) I have only to hold on.
--
Theres an American living in Madras, a rather important man, it seems, and an intimate friend of Kennedy, the new President. He has read and reread all of Sri Aurobindos books and is extremely interested. He wrote to Kennedy that he would like him to come here so he can bring him to the Ashram. This man has posed a very interesting question, drawing an analogy. Deep in a forest, a deer goes to quench its thirst; no one is aware of it, yet someone Who has made a special study of deer hunting would know by the tracks that the deer had passed bynot only what particular type of deer, but its age, size, sex, etc. Similarly, there must be people with a spiritual knowledge analogous to that of hunters, Who can detect, perceive, that a person is in touch with the Supermind, while ordinary people know nothing about it and wouldnt notice. So he asks, I would like to know by what signs such a person can be recognized?
It is a very intelligent question.
--
The first sign is perfect equality as Sri Aurobindo has described it (you must know it, theres a Whole chapter on equality, samat, in The Synthesis of Yoga)exactly as he described it with such wonderful precision! But this equality (which is not equanimity) is a particular STATE where one relates to all things, outer and inner, and to each individual thing, in the same way. That is truly perfect equality: vibrations from things, from people, from contacts have no power to alter that state.
In my reply I mentioned this first, though I didnt give him all these explanations. I put it in a few words as a kind of test of his intelligence, and in a somewhat cryptic form to see if he would understand.
--
When these two signs are present (both are necessary, one is incomplete without the other), when a person possesses both, then you can be sure he has been in contact with the Supermind. So people Who speak about receiving the Light well, (laughing) its a lot of hot air! But when both signs are present, you can be sure of your perception.12
(silence)
--
Almost (I say almost because the body hasnt had every experience), but almost all pains can be reduced to something absolutely negligible. (Of course, some pains it hasnt had, but it has had a sufficient number!) Its this anxiety resulting from a semi-mental vibration (the first stirrings of Mind) that complicates everything, everything! For example, take this difficulty I mentioned of climbing the stairs: in the doctors consciousness or anyone elses, pain causes it. According to their ordinary reasoning, pain is what tenses the nerves and muscles so one can no longer walk but this is absolutely FALSE. Pain does not prevent my body from doing anything at all. Pain isnt a factor, or rather its a factor that can be easily dealt with. Its not that: it is Matter; Matter (probably cellular matter, or) losing its capacity to respond to the will, to will-power. But why? I dont know! It depends upon the particular disorganization; but why is it like that? I dont know. Now each time I climb the stairs, I am trying to find the means of infusing Will in such a way that this lack of response doesnt last but I still havent found it. Although theres all this accumulated force and power and will (a tremendous accumulation, I am BATHED in it, the Whole body is bathed in it!), yet for some reason it doesnt respond. Here and there, groups of cells fail to respond, and the Force cannot act. So what must be found is.
(silence)
Even in this, right now, in what I am saying, theres a sense of tapasya; theres the Whole inner consciousness making the body do a tapasya. But my knowledge and my certainty (what I KNOW) is that it may be a necessary preparation, but it is NOT what accomplishes the work.15 Rather, it is something acting like that (Mother abruptly turns her hand over to indicate a reversal of states). And when it goes like that, it is done, all is done. All is done.
Are these disorders necessary for it to become like that? I have my doubts. I have my doubts. But the question cant even be asked, because what it implies seems to verge on a fatalism having no truth in itselfit is not a fatalism, not at all. What is it? Something that defies expression.
--
So, mon petit, I have talked the Whole time and we still havent done anythingano ther day without working! (Mother laughs)
Its a curious thing speaking evidently helps me follow the experience. But I cant just begin speaking all alone up in my room! And talking to a tape recorder is useless. Up to now, it certainly flows the best with youby far. I havent tried with others, although occasionally Ive said something to Nolini, but his receptivity is fuzzy (I dont know whether you can understand this impression: its as though my. words were going into cotton-wool). Once, as I told you, I spoke with R., and with him I felt that three quarters of it was absolutely lostand as a matter of fact it was. But with you I begin to SEE, and the need to formulate makes me concentrate on my vision. And this I experience with you more than I ever have with anyone. So.
0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Listen, mon petit, you dont need to ask, I will tell you right away. Sri Aurobindo has written somewhere that the movement of world transformation is double: first, the individual Who does sadhana6 and establishes contact with higher things; but at the same time, the world is a base and it must rise up a little and prepare itself for the realization to be achieved (this is putting it simply). Some people live merely on the surface they come alive only when they stir about restlessly. Whatever happens inside them (if anything does!) is immediately thrown out into movement. Such people always need an outer activity; take J. for example: he fastened onto Sri Aurobindos phrase, World Union, and came to tell me he wanted.
He has been like that since the beginning (gesture expressing agitation), and he had a go at a considerable number of things but none ever succeeded! He has no method, no sense of order and he doesnt know how to organize work. So World Union is simply to let him have his way, like letting a horse gallop.
I used to send him around to the various centers (because he had to do something!), and he would visit, speak to people I dont know about what. And during one of his trips to Delhi he happened to meet Z, Who had been sent by the government of India to the Soviet Union, where it seems he delivered an extraordinary speech (it must have been extraordinary, because I have been receiving letters from everywhere, including America, asking for the text of this sensational speech in which he apparently spoke of human unity). So Z returned with the idea of forming a World Union, and J. and Z met. Furthermore, they were encouraged by S.M.7 and even by the Prime Minister,8 Who probably had a special liking for Z and had given him a lot of encouragement. Thats how things began.
I treated it as something altogether secondary and unimportantwhen people need to gallop, I let them gallop (but I hadnt met Z). Then J. and Z left together on a speaking-tour of Africa and there things began to go sour, because Z was working in one way and J. in another. Finally, they were at odds and came back here to tell me, World Union is off to a good startwith a quarrel! (Mother laughs) Z was saying, Nothing can be done unless we base ourselves EXCLUSIVELY on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and they are behind us giving support. And J. said, No, no! We are not sectarian! We accept all ideas, all theories, etc. I replied, and as it happens, I said that Z was right, though with one corrective: he had been saying that people had to recognize us as their guru. No, I said, its absolutely uselessnot only useless, I refuse. I dont want to be anybodys guru. People should simply be told that things are to be done on the basis of Sri Aurobindos thought.9
--
Now it has all fallen flat. They are carrying on with their little activities, but its absolutely unimportant. They publish a small journal, and V, Who writes for them, is far from stupid. She is rather intelligent and I have some control over her, so I will try to stop her from writing nonsense.
They also had a sudden brainstorm to affiliate with the Sri Aurobindo Society. But the Sri Aurobindo Society has absolutely nothing to do with their project: its a strictly external thing, organized by businessmen to bring in moneyEXCLUSIVELY. That is, they want to put people in a position where they feel obliged to give (so far they have succeeded and I believe they will succeed). But this has nothing to do with working for an ideal, it is COMPLETELY practical.10 And of course, World Union has nothing to offer the Sri Aurobindo Society: they would simply siphon off funds. So I told them, Nothing doingits out of the question!
But your name is there as President of the Sri Aurobindo Society, they said. My name is there to give an entirely material guarantee that the money donated will really and truly be used for the Work to be done and for nothing else; its only a moral and purely practical guarantee. These people arent even asked to understand what Sri Aurobindo has said but simply to participate. Its a different matter for those in World Union, Who are working for an ideal: they want to prepare the world to receive (laughing) the Supermind! Let them prepare it! It doesnt matter, they will achieve nothing at all, or very little. Its unimportant. Thats my point of view and I have told them so.
In addition, I told them it was preferable not to hold any functions herethey can be held at Tapogiri in the Himalayas, or elsewhere and this is understood. They did hold a seminar here (a perfect fiasco, besides), but it had been arranged a long time ago. They invited people Who promised to come (I think very few showed up in the end), and it was of very secondary importance. Nevertheless, I told them, This is the last time; dont do it here any more. At Tapogiri, as often as you like: its a beautiful spot in the mountains, a health resort, people go there in the summer for the fresh air and to sit around and chat!
What shocked me was. You know I rarely leave my house, but each time I would come to the Ashram for darshan or to see you, always, as if by chance, I would find J. off in a corner with some European visitor. The repetition of this coincidence made me wonder, Whats he doing so systematically with ALL the European visitors?! And it shocked me to imagine myself in their place: just suppose, I said to myself, you are coming to the Ashram for the first time, very open, in search of a great truth, and you stumble upon this man Who tells you: Sri Aurobindo = World Union. Well, my first reaction would be, Im leaving, Im not interested!
It serves as a test, my child, a very good test! There are many things like that.
For example, theres someone here, Mridou (you know her, shes as round as a barrel11), Who gossips to everybody. She had quite a clientele for a long time because she used to make Indian sweets and the Europeans went to her place for snacks. She is a woman Who, when there isnt any gossip, invents it! She tells all the dirt imaginable to all her visitorsa fact which was brought to my attention. I recall that a long time ago Sir Akbar from Hyderabad warned me, You know, shes the second Mother of the Ashram, be careful! Its a good test, I replied, people Who dont immediately sense what it is arent worthy of coming here!
Well, with J. its the samefrom an intellectual viewpoint, its the very same thing: if people are taken in by what he says, it means theyre not ready AT ALL.
--
Its outrageous! First of all, they use Sri Aurobindos name, putting it on a level with Vinoba Bhave or Dr. Schweitzer or Who knows what other sage; then at the end they launch an appeal for people to enroll! So the reader is left wondering, But I thought Sri Aurobindo. You understand, this indiscriminate mixture, this diminishing.
I wrote them a letter where I stuck this nonsense of theirs right under their noses.
Listen to this appeal: If the opportunity offered by this movement appeals to you, if you have the feeling that you are one of those Who have been prepared to collaborate in the spiritual adventure, we invite you to write to us, enrolling yourself as a member of World Union.
Im going to send this to V, asking her innocently, Has this appeared in your journal? Because it would be better if it didnt: we dont make propaganda. Oh, I am hard on them, you know!
--
Oh, Ive had all sorts of examples! All these errors serve as tests. Take the case of P.: for a long time, whenever someone arrived from the outside world and asked to be instructed, he was sent to P.s room. (I didnt send them, but they would be told, Go speak to P.!) And P. is the sectarian par excellence! He would tell people, Unless you acknowledge Sri Aurobindo as the ONLY one Who knows the truth, you are good for nothing! Naturally (laughing), many rebelled! (You see, out of lazinessso as not to be bothered with seeing people or answering their questionsone says, Go find so-and-so, go ask so-and-so, and passes off the work to another.) Well, it was finally understood that this wasnt very tactful, and perhaps it would be better not to send visitors to P., since so many had been put off. But actually. I was told about it afterwards and I replied, Let people read and see for THEMSELVES whether or not it suits them! What difference does it make if theyre put off! If they are, it means they NEED to be put off! Well see later. Some of them have come full circle and returned. Others never came backbecause they werent meant to. Thats how it goes. Basically, all this has NO importance. Or we could put it in another way: everything is perfectly all right.
(silence)
--
This is the text of Mother's reply to J.: 'I have read Z's account and your own letter on this subject. in the faith of his devotion, he must have been quite offended. The truth in what he says is that any idea, WHATEVER its degree of truth, is ineffective if it does not also carry the power acquired through realization, by a real change of consciousness. And if the proponent of this idea does not himself have the realization, he must seek the backing of those Who have the power. On the other hand, what you say is true: an idea ought to be accepted on the basis of its inherent truth and not because of the personality expounding it, however great this personality may be. These two truths or aspects of the question are equally true but also equally incomplete: they are not the Whole truth. Both of them must be accepted and combined with many other aspects of the question if you want to even begin to approach the dynamic power of the realization. Don't you see how ridiculous this situation is? Three people of goodwill meet in the hope of teaching men the necessity for a "World Union" and they are not even able to keep a tolerant or tolerable union among themselves, because each sees a different angle of the procedure to be followed for implementing their plan.'
Although it began as a fund-raising organization for the needs of the Ashram and Auroville, this 'strictly external thing,' which had 'nothing to do with working for an ideal,' would, after Mother's departure, coolly declare itself the 'owner' and guide of Auroville.
0 1961-03-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have brought you a Whole discourse! (Mother gives Satprem some flowers) First, the goal of the Vedas: Immortality.1 That was their goal: the Truth that led to Immortality. Immortality was their ambition. I dont think it was physical immortality but I am not sure, because they do speak of the forefa thers and this refers to the initiatory tradition prior to the Vedas as well as the Kabbala, and immortality on earth is spoken of there: the earth transformedSri Aurobindos idea. So although they didnt explicitly state it, perhaps they knew.
(Mother gives more flowers) This one is more on the personal side: Friendship with the Divine2, the friendly relationship you can have with the Divineyou understand each other, you dont fear each other, youre good friends! And this one is a wonder! (Mother gives Divine Love Governing the World3) What strength! Its generous, expansive, without narrowness, pettiness, or limitationswhen that comes.
--
Mon petit, I dont claim to be totally universal, but in any case I am open enough to receive. You see, given the quantity of material I have taken into my consciousness, its quite natural that the body bears the consequences. There is nothing, not one wrong movement, that my body doesnt feel5; generally, though, things are automatically set in order (gesture indicating that Mother automatically purifies and masters the vibrations coming to her). But there are timesespecially when it coincides with a revolt of adverse forces Who dont want to give up their domain and enter into battle with all their mightwhen I must admit its hard. If I had some hours of solitude it would be easier. But particularly during the period of my Playground activities, I was badgered, harassed; I would rush from one thing to the next, one thing to the next, I had no nights to speak ofnights of two and a half or three hours rest, which isnt enough, theres no time to put things in order.
Under those conditions I could only hold the thing like this (same gesture of muzzling the illness or holding it in abeyance).
--
Until 1958, Mother went daily to the Ashram Playground, from 5 p.m. to 9 or 10 in the evening, to see people and give her direct spiritual help to some 2,000 disciples Who passed before her one by one.
Mother is referring to the movements of consciousness, both good and bad, of those Whom she has accepted as disciples and taken into her consciousness.
Mother was already seeking the 'new food.'
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I had to return here that is, to my home in India, to Sri Aurobindos home: I had to return to Sri Aurobindos home. Pavitra was also working there and he didnt want to let me leave; when he saw me going he came and tried to stop me. You, on the contrary, were helping. Shall I take anything with me or not? I asked myself Oh, I dont need anything, Ill go all alone. That worried you a little because of the journey ahead, and you said, There will be many complications. It doesnt matter! I replied (laughing). But if you only knew how living and concrete it was! The impressions were so there was the feeling of making a long voyageit was a LONG voyage, as if I were crossing the sea (but not physically), a long voyage. I remember setting off (I was with you, you were there) and telling myself, At last hes here! At last I have found a reasonable being Who doesnt try to stop me from doing what I must do! I had (laughing mischievously) a very high opinion of you, thats why I am telling you this!
I was abruptly awakened by the clock striking (I didnt count), and my immediate feeling was, Well, he is really very nice! Now theres a good companion!
--
What use are discussions? in general, those Who like to discuss need the stimulation of contradiction to clarify their ideas.
Its a thing I live almost constantly: I have people like that around me!
--
How long did it last? Its hard to say. But for man it was a life like a sort of flowering of animal life. My memory is of a life where the body was perfectly adapted to its natural surroundings. The climate was in harmony with the needs of the body, the body with the demands of the climate. Life was Wholly spontaneous and natural, as a more luminous and conscious animal life would be, with absolutely none of the complications and deformations brought in later by the mind as it developed.
I have a recollection of this life, for I relived it when I first became conscious of the life of the entire earth; but I cant say how long it lasted or what area it covered I dont know. I only remember the conditions at that time, the state of material Nature and the human form and human consciousness, and this state of harmony with all the other elements of the earth: harmony with animal life and a great harmony with plant lifethere was a kind of spontaneous knowledge of how to use the things of Nature, the qualities of plants, fruits and all that vegetal nature could offer. There was no aggressiveness, no fear, no contradictions or frictions, and no perversion the mind was pure, simple, luminous, uncomplicated.
--
The recollection of those times is stored somewhere in the terrestrial memory, that region where all the earths memories are inscribed. Those Who contact this memory can tell you that the earthly paradise still exists somewhere.7 But it doesnt exist materially. I dont know, I dont see it.
(silence)
0 1961-03-14, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yet the cells sense so perfectly that. All the experiences in the subconscient at night are quite clear proofs that a a WORLD of things and vibrations is being cleaned outall the vibrations opposed to the cellular transformation. But how can one poor little body do all that work! The body is quite aware of being a sort of accumulation and concentration of things (yet there is inevitably a selectionMo ther laughsbecause if everything had to be worked out in one center like this [her body] it would be it would be impossible!). Oh, if you knew how deeply and perfectly convinced these cells are, in all their groups and sub-groups, each one individually and within the Whole, that everything is not only decreed but executed by the Divine, everything! They have a kind of constant awareness so filled with a conscious faith in His infinite wisdom, even when there is what the ordinary consciousness calls suffering or pain. Thats not what it is for the cellsits something else! And the result is a state of yes, a state of peaceful combat. There is a sense of Peace, the vibration of Peace, and simultaneously an impression of being (how to put it?) on the alert, in constant combat. Taken all together it creates a rather odd situation.
And within oh! Its like waves, constantly, the equivalent of those nuances of color I was speaking about, waves of this joy of life, the joy of life rippling past, touching; but instead of being. At times, you see, the body is in a sort of equilibrium (what we, in our ordinary outer consciousness, call equilibrium that is, good health), and then this joy is constant, like swells on the sea (Mother shapes great waves): it seems to flow on behind everything; it comes and shows its face for a moment, then vanishes. In the very tiny things of lifeyes, physical life the joy of these things, the joy life contains, this luminous, special kind of vibration, rises up as if to remind us that its here; it is here, it mustnt be forgotten, its here but its kept down by this tension.
--
All together, as a Whole, its something so peculiar!1
(long silence)
--
In other words, this coexistence or simultaneity of joy and tension, combat and peace, progress in the cellular consciousness and physical disequilibrium, form a physiological Whole which is ... strange.
***
0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The experience occurred in a place corresponding to ours [the main Ashram building], but immense: the rooms were ten times bigger, but absolutely one cant say emptythey were barren. Not that there was nothing in them, but nothing was in order, everything was just where it shouldnt be. There wasnt any furniture so things were strewn here and therea dreadful disarray! Things were being put to uses they werent made for, yet nothing needed for a particular purpose could be found. The Whole section having to do with education [the Ashram School] was in almost total darkness: the lights were out with no way to switch them on, and people were wandering about and coming to me with incoherent, stupid proposals. I tried to find a comer where I could rest (not because I was tired; I simply wanted to concentrate a little and get a clear vision in the midst of it all), but it was impossible, no one would leave me alone. Finally I put a tottering armchair and a footstool end-to-end and tried to rest; but someone immediately came up (I know Who, Im purposely not giving names) and said, Oh! This wont do at all! It CANT be arranged like that! Then he began making noise, commotion, disorderwell, it was awful.
To wind it all up, I went to Sri Aurobindos rooman enormous, enormous room, but in the same state. And he appeared to be in an eternal consciousness, entirely detached from everything yet very clearly aware of our total incapacity.
--
One thing after another, one thing after another! This subconscient is interminable, interminable, if you only knew I am skipping the details-such stupidity, oh! This person I wont name, Who so clumsily prepared breakfast, told me, Ah, yes, Sri Aurobindo is a little morose today, he is depressed. I could have slapped him: You fool! You dont understand anything! And Sri Aurobindo, although he didnt want to show it, was completely aware of our incapacity.
(silence)
--
Of course, these scenes are slightly exaggerated because they are seen in isolation from the rest; within the Whole many things crisscross and complete each other, diminishing each others importance. But in an experience like last nights, things are taken singly and shown in isolation, as through a magnifying glass. And after all its a good lesson.
Inefficiency. All right, then.
0 1961-03-21, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Before that experience, as part of the attack, I also got a sore throat. I didnt believe it would manifest, but around 9:30 this morning when I came downstairs for meditation with X,2 it did. Its nothing at all, though. The Whole time I was with X (and even before, when I was waiting for him), it was halted completelyeverything in that room came to a halt. It started up again only after he left and I came here. But its nothing.
X told me he has been doing something for me in his puja3since December, it seemsso this morning I thought he should know about the experience and I sent Amrita to tell him. He replied to Amrita that this confirmed his certainty that Z has been making black magic against me since December. He had been told that Z was practicing black magic in Kashmir. Could this be the same person I saw before [during the December 1958 attack]? Since it was someone Who concealed his identity, I cant say but this form was robed as a sannyasi. Perhaps its he, I dont know. I reserve my judgment because I dont know personally. But this is what X said, and hes going to redouble his efforts.
Thats the situation.
--
I hadnt thought of it at allnot at all. I have seen Zs thoughts several times, but not in this form: very, very angry thoughts but simply trying to catch my attention.4 But this was something else. X said it was Z, thats what X saw. He doesnt seem to have attached the slightest importance to my magicianobviously this person was just a screen. It must be someone Who knows magic and is being used by another as an instrument. But when I saw it all this morning, I must say I didnt once think of Z. Its only X Who said so.
But Z I dont know how to explain my relationship with him. He is sheltered by a light of benediction, so. When he was here I opened the doors for him to a realization he was incapable of having, something light years beyond him; and it gave him an appalling ambition, totally spoiling everything. From this point of view, its a great blessing for him; even if he becomes a dreadful Asura, it will come to a good end! It doesnt matter, its not important. Thats why this morning, even when I heard what X said about Z, it was the same thing: this great Light of the supreme Mother going out towards Z. His magic is not important, but if he indulges in it, too bad for him. It doesnt concern me: its Xs business and X is doing whats necessary and I believe (laughing) he hits hard!5
--
Who can do it, then? There is no one here. Thats why I wish greater attention would be paid in publishing translations of Sri Aurobindo.
Yes, its a problem. Thats why I dont categorically tell you not to do it, because after all, he shouldnt be massacred!
--
Satprem was trying to patch up some French translations of Sri Aurobindo done by well-meaning but not very gifted disciples, Who of course wanted 'to publish' at all costs.
This 'massive immobility' Mother spoke of earlier.
0 1961-03-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It gave me the impression you get in outer life: all the pieces more or less dovetail but with no inner unitytheres not ONE thing, not one, that is true, essentially and always true. We know it is like that outwardly, of course; but I have always felt that with people Who have an inner life, one could attain a kind of identity of vibration and knowledge but no!
Very well, I said, if thats how it is..
--
What ruffles me is that someone like X, Who has worked on himself, ought to have felt it. Why do I feel it? Because since I have been doing all this work on my body, it senses things and it is never mistaken. I have had repeated proof that it is never mistaken. When a higher vibration comes, it feels it right away! But I must say that this has only been the case since the body became very universalized. However, I was under the impression that X must have been somewhat universalized to have the powers he has, but now I dont know.
Its not that I was disappointed by his way of being, certainly not; but it has suddenly confronted me with a terrible problem: Is it impossible to live a truth in material consciousness? Is it really impossible? An absolute, I mean an absolute truthnot something entirely subjective and relative, each one living his own truth in his own manner. Will one person always be like this and the other like that and the third like something else? So that only by putting all the pieces together do we actually amount to anything and yet to what?! Is it completely impossible for absolute truth to manifest in the present state of Matter? This is the problem that has seized me.
--
That risks a terrible misunderstanding; be careful. Perhaps he wont even remember what he said anymore. Its difficult with X because he doesnt say things with his mindit just comes like that, and then he forgets. You know how it is. Something may have made him speak. For instance, I know that with N. he almost always says unpleasant things about people and situations and this entirely results from N.s atmosphere. I have told N., He speaks like that because of your inner attitude. To one person he will say one thing, to another something completely different on the same subjectit depends a great deal on Who hes talking to. No, I havent told you all this for you to speak with X about it, I have told you because it has posed a serious problem for me.
Its best to wait and see. I put a certain force into that note I wrote this morning (I wrote it at a very early hour) and you know that a formation4 is created when I write; I willed it to go to himand he may have received it. Well see what happens. Its better not to speak of it because it might speaking is too external.
--
I probably needed the experience. You remember that type of detachment I spoke of when I had that experiencewhen the BODY had that experience of January 24, 1961well, it has increased to such an extent that it now applies to anything and everything linked with action on earth. This detachment was probably necessary. It began with something like things dissolving (Mother makes a gesture of crumbling something between her fingers); certain kinds of links between my consciousness and the Work were dissolving (not links with me, because I dont have any, but with the body; the Whole physical consciousness, all that attaches it to the things in its environment, to the Work and to the entourage I spoke to you about that in regard to physical immortality; well, thats what is happening now). Its like things dissolvingdissolving, dissolving, dissolving. And its more and more pronounced. During these last days, things have been becoming increasingly difficultdifficulties have been coming one after another, one after another. Formerly, I had the power to get a grip on them and hold them (Mother tightens her grip as though mastering circumstances); but now that this type of detachment has begun, things drift away everywhereeverywhere, everywhere.
So this episode with X is probably part of the same process. What has been affected is a certain confidence in the REALITY of the Power, the REALITY of spiritual action; there seems to be no communication between here (above) and there (below).
--
Its one thing to have the spiritual experience of the illusion of material life (some find this painful, but I found it so wonderfully beautiful and happy that it was one of the loveliest experiences of my life); but now the Whole spiritual construction as one has lived it is becoming a total illusion! Not the same illusion, a far more serious illusion.
If That was not there. Obviously, That [divine Love] is here, like a mattress placed so you wont break your neck when you fall. Thats precisely the feeling: this experience of the vibration of divine Love is the mattress so you dont break your neck!
--
In the occult sense, a 'formation' signifies a concentration of power or force directed towards a particular goal. it is like a bullet of force going inexorably to its target. In fact, all beings are constantly making 'formations' with their thoughts and desires, but these formations have scarcely any power other than that of clinging to the one Who has made them or returning upon him like a boomerang.
The following undated note (which could date from this or any number of other times!) was found among Mother's scattered papers: Now the situation has become very critical, all the reserves have been swallowed up, there are debts, many important works remain unfinished and the daily life has become a problem. It is the subsistence of more than 1,200 people which is in question.
0 1961-04-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Vedas, after all, were written by people Who remembered a radical experience, which must have taken place on earth at a given moment, as an example of what was to come. (This always happens in the yoga: a first radical experience comes like a herald of the future realization.) So in the terrestrial yogain the yoga of the earth, of the planet earththere was a moment when it came; they Who are called the forefa thers must have created, through their effort and their yoga, at least an image of the supramental realization. And those Who wrote the Vedas, Who composed all these hymns, remembered or kept the tradition of that experience. And oh, mon petit, it had the same effect on me as when I read the Yoga of Self-Perfection in The Synthesis of Yoga (Mother catches her breath): there is such a gulf between what we are, what life on earth and human consciousness now are, even among the most enlightened, the most advanced, and THAT!
I dont know if its because I have been so violently attackedbludgeonedby all these malevolent energies, but in any case, I sensed acutely the FORMIDABLE immensity of what has to be done in order for THAT to be realized.
--
And to come to this experience I had to pass through a state of the most supreme indifference, where the Whole terrestrial manifestation is an illusion; I passed through that, I had my experience BEYOND that. And beyond that at the moment of supreme ecstasy came fiery tears of grief.
(silence)
0 1961-04-08, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All these things are interwoven, you seeeach time, you seem to be adding a touch. Even a detail that doesnt seem relevant by itself becomes part of a gradually emerging picture when seen with the Whole.
Yes, of course. But its basically a description of my sadhana, thats all, and I always say that it will be interesting only if I go through to the end.
--
(Later, concerning the disciples very traditionalist guru Who falls ill each time he comes to the Ashram:)
He seems to understand better. In his own way, he is progressiveunfortunately, it always makes him sick! The Force is too great for his body to bear.
0 1961-04-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(The disciple asks for permission to poison some cats Who have been disturbing him every night. Mother replies:)
I once had a cat with almost a childs consciousness, and someone poisoned it. And when he came back poisoned, dying, I cursed all people Who poison cats. And thats serious, so you mustnt do it. It was a real curse I was with Sri Aurobindo, so it was seriousso dont do it.
But there is a way.
--
The first was with a boy Who was a Sanskritist and had wanted to come to India with us. He was the son of a French ambassadoran old, noble family. But he learned that his lungs were bad, and so he joined the Army; he enlisted as an officer, just at the start of the 1914 war. And he had the courage of those Who no longer cling to life; when he received the order to advance on the enemy trenches (it was incredibly stupid, simply sending people to be slaughtered!), he didnt hesitate. He went. And he was hit between the two lines. For a long time, it was a no mans land; only after some days, when the other trench had been taken, could they go and collect the dead. All this came out in the newspapers AFTERWARDS. But on the day he was killed, of course, no one was aware of it.
I had a nice photo of him with a Sanskrit dedication, placed on top of a kind of wardrobe in my bedroom. I open the door and the photo falls. (There was no draft or anything.) It fell and the glass broke into smithereens. Immediately I said, Oh! Something has happened to Fontenay. (That was his name: Charles de Fontenay.) After that I came back down from my room, and then I hear a miaowing at the door (the door opened onto a large garden courtyard1). I open the door: a cat bursts in and jumps on me, like that (Mother thumps her breast). I speak to him: What is it, whats the matter? He drops to the ground and looks at meFontenays eyes! Absolutely! No one elses. And he just stayed put, he didnt want to go. I said to myself, Fontenay is dead.
--
The other story dates farther back. I was living in another house (we had the Whole fifth floor), and once a week I used to hold meetings there with people interested in occultism they came to have me demonstrate or tell them about occult practices. There was a Swedish artist, a French lady and a young French boy, a student and a poet. His parents were decent country people Who bled themselves white to pay for his life in Paris. This boy was very intelligent and a true artist, but he was depraved. (We knew about it, but it was his private life and none of our business.) One evening, when four or five of us were to meet, this boy didnt turn up, although he had said he would. We had our meeting anyway and didnt think much about itwe thought he must have been busy elsewhere. Around midnight, when the people were leaving, I open the door. A big black cat was sitting in the doorway and, in a single bound, it jumps on me, just like that, all curled up in a ball. So I calm it down, I look at itAh, the eyes! They were this boys eyes. (I no longer recall his name.) Right away (at the time we were all involved in occultism), we knew something had happened; he had been unable to come and the cat had incarnated his vital force.
The next day, all the newspapers were full of a vile murder: a pimp had murdered this boyit was disgusting! Something utterly vile. And it had happened at the very moment he should have come the concierge had seen him going into the house with this pimp. What happened? Was it just for money or for something elsevice? Or what?
--
But I have had some cats. I had a cat Who was the reincarnation of the mind of a Russian woman. I had a vision of it one day, it was so strangethis woman had been murdered at the time of the Russian Revolution, along with her two little children. And her mind entered a cat here. (How? I dont know.) But this cat, mon petit. I got her when she was very young. She would come and lie down, stretched out like a human being, with her head on my arm! (I used to sleep on a Japanese tatami on the floor.) And she would stay there, so well-behaved, didnt stir all night long! I was really amazed. Then she had kittens, and wanted to give birth to them lying stretched out, not at all like a cat. It was very difficult to make her understand that it couldnt be done that way! And one night after she had had her kittens, I saw her I saw a young woman in furs, with a fur bonnetyou could just see a tiny human face; she had two little ones and she came to me and placed them at my feet. Her Whole story was there in her consciousness: how she and the two children had been murdered. And then I realized she was the cat!
The cat wouldnt leave her kittens for a moment! Not for anything. She wouldnt eat, wouldnt go outside to relieve herself, nothing: she stayed put. So I told her, Bring me your kittens. (If you know how to handle them, cats understand very well when theyre spoken to.) Bring me your little ones. She looked at me, went and brought one of her kittens, and placed it between my feet. Then she went to fetch the other one and placed it between my feet (not beside, between my feet). Now you can go out, I told her. And out she went.
--
I had another cat I called Big Boy. Oh, how beautiful he was! Enormous! A tail like the train of a gown. He was beautiful! Since there were all kinds of cats prowling around, including a big fierce tomcat Who was extremely vicious, I was very afraid for this one when he was little and I got him used to spending his nights inside (which is hard for a cat to do). I forbade him to go out. So he spent his nights inside and when I got up in the morning, he got up too and came and sat down in front of me. Then I would say, All right, Big Boy, you can go, and he would jump out the window and go off but never before. And this is the one Who was poisoned.
Because later on he would go roaming about; he had become terribly strong and would prowl around everywhere. At that time I was living in the Library house, and he would go off as far as the Ashram street (the Ashram didnt belong to us yet, the house was owned by all kinds of people), but when I would go out on the terrace across from Champaklals kitchen and call, Big boy! Big Boy! although he couldnt hear it, he could sense it, and he would come back galloping, galloping. He always came back, unfailingly. The day he didnt come back, I got worried; the servant went looking for himand found him moaning, vomiting, poisoned. He brought him to me. Oh, really! it was. He was so nice! He wasnt a thief or anythinghe was a wonderful cat. Someone had laid out poison for god knows what cat, and he ate it. I showed him to Sri Aurobindo and said, He has been killed.
--
When I moved here to the Ashram, I said, We cant bring any cats into this house, its quite impossible. This was after Big Boys death, and we had had enough of cats. I gave away the others, but the first one, the mother of the Whole line, was old and didnt want to leave, so I felt her behind. She stayed in a house over there, within the Ashram compound. And one dayshe was very old and could no longer move I saw her come dragging in and sit down on that terrace on the other side. (Now you cant see it any more the Service Tree has hidden it completely but in those days you could see it very clearly.) She came and sat down over there where she could watch me until she died. Quietly, without moving, she died watching me.
All these cat stories! If we had photographs, we could make a pretty little album of cat stories.
And extraordinary, extraordinary details! Showing such intelligence, oh! This woman I mean this cat Who had been a womanif you knew how she brought up her children, oh! With such patience, such intelligence and understanding! It was extraordinary. One could tell long, long stories: how she taught them not to be afraid, to walk along the edge of walls, to jump from a wall to a window. She showed them, encouraged them, and finally, after showing and encouraging them very often (some would jump, others were afraid), she would give them a push! So of course they would jump immediately.
And she taught them everything. To eat, to. This cat would never eat before they had all eaten. She would show them what to do, give each one what it needed. And once they had grown up and she didnt have to look after them anymore, if they kept coming back she would send them away: Go away! Your turn is over, its finished. Go out into the world! And she would take care of the new ones.
--
Oh, what lovely cat stories! That was a Whole period for many, many years. Many years.
Mind you, I would never have considered having any, but two cats were already there when I came to the house. They were not very interesting cats, but they became the parents of the one I just told you about (those boys Who were living with Sri Aurobindo had already had some experience; they knew quite a few things about cats), and that was the origin of all the cats I had here. But people (you know how simplistic they always are!) believed I had some special attachment for cats, so then of course everybody started keeping cats! It was no use my telling them, No, its a particular study were making I wanted to see, to learn certain things, and I learned what I had to but now that I have moved to another house, the cat era is over; the old friends are gone, only the younger generation is left. I gave them all away and said) Thats enough. But its hard to make people understandsome people here have 25 cats! Thats unreasonable! Its not the way to deal with cats. You have to look after them as I did, and then it becomes interesting.
There was one I know I SAW it: when he died there was already the embryo of a psychic being, ready for a human incarnation. I made them progress like wildfire.
0 1961-04-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, the subconscient! Every night its a real invasion of things that are so the WhoLE subconscient keeps coming up, coming up, coming upnot just mine but everybodys. There seems to be no end to it.
But now I have the knack of forgetting I just forget. Because when I used to remember, I had to fight for entire days. So as soon as I wake up, I erase it right away: go away! Gone!
0 1961-04-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I stumbled upon a sentence from Sri Aurobindo yesterday or the day before. From the occult standpoint it has to do with a rather important problem, and I would really like some light on this question: The man Who slays is only an occasion, the instrument by which the thing done behind the veil becomes the thing done on this side of it.
It means exactly this (I am going back to the preceding sentence): Who can protect the one Whom God has already slain?1 He has already been slain by God. When God has decided that someone is to be slain, nothing can protect him or keep him from being slain. And Sri Aurobindo adds: the man Who slays (because it is not God Who slays directly, he uses a man), the man Who slays is only a circumstance, the instrument through which the thing decided by God behind the veil is accomplished materially here.
These are political texts from the revolutionary period, concerning bomb attacks against the English. And then he says that the man God has protected can never be touched. However hard you try, you will never be able to slay him. But Who can protect the man God has already slain? He has already been slain by God. And man is simply the instrument used by God to do here what has been done there (it has ALREADY been done there). Its very simple.
Yes, I quite understand. But in general, does EVERYTHING that happens here first get played out on the other side in some way? Its an occult problem, and furthermore a problem of freedom.
According to my experience both things are simultaneous, so to speak. Its we Who introduce the notion of time, but the notion of time doesnt exist on the other side.
For example, if I were asked how much time it takes for a thing decided upon there to be realized here, I would answer that it is absolutely indeterminate. That is my experience. I always give the following example because its so clear: Thirty-five years before India became free, I saw that she was free. It was already done. And I have also seen things which for us are almost instantaneous something is decided there and realized almost instantly here. And there are all sorts of possibilities between these two extremes, because the notion of time is not at all the sameso we cant judge. It is facile to say that what you are seeing will happen in a year or in a week or in an hour but in fact, this is impossible. It depends upon the case and certain factors which are part of the Whole.
In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternityeverything, without exception, that is to be manifested here.
--
It is very interesting from the standpoint of death. I saw it once so clearly when someone (I no longer remember Whom) had left his body. The word death and all these human reactions seemed so foolish! So senseless, ignorant, stupidfalse, without reality. There was simply something that shifted, like this (Mother draws a curve showing a shift of consciousness from one mode of being to another), and then we, in our false consciousness, made a drama out of it. But it was simply something evolving (same gesture).
Let me tell you about a recent occurrence. E. had sent a telegram saying that she had a perforated intestine (but it must have been something else because they operated on her only after several days, and when you are not operated on immediately in such cases, you die). Anyway, it was very serious and she was on the threshold of death that much is certain. She wrote me a letter the day before the operation (what is interesting is that now she doesnt even remember what she wrote). It was a magnificent letter saying that she was conscious of the Divine Presence and of the Divine Plan. Tomorrow they will operate on me, she said. And I am entirely aware that this operation has ALREADY been done, that it is a fact accomplished by the Divine Will; otherwise it could be a fatal ordeal. And she said she was conscious of the supreme Wills action, in a perfect peace. It was a magnificent letter. And the Whole thing went off almost miraculously; she recovered in such a miraculous way that the surgeon himself said, I must congratulate you, to which she replied, How surprising! You did the operation! Yes, he said, we did the operation, but it is your body that willed to be healed, and I congratulate you for your bodys willpower. Of course she wrote to me that she knew Who had been there to see that all went well. And this feeling of the thing being already accomplished is a beginning of the consciousness Sri Aurobindo speaks of in the Yoga of Self-Perfection, where one is simultaneously both here and there. Because, as Sri Aurobindo says, some people have managed to be entirely there, but what he has called the realization is to be both there and here simultaneously.
Of course, one might wonder what the meaning of everything here is, if it has all been already accomplished above, on an occult plane, and we are merely re-enacting it.
--
There is a universal unfolding, the true unfolding, that of the Supreme Lord Who watches (this is the best way to put it) his own unfoldment. But for some reason or other, there has been a deformation of consciousness which makes us see this unfolding as something separate, a more or less adequate expression of the Divine Will. But it isnt so! It is the very unfolding of the Divine within Himselfwithin Himself, from Himself, for Himself. And its simply our falsehood that makes a separate thing of it The very fact of objectifying (what WE call objectification) is already a falsehood.5
I have had this particular consciousness in flashes. The difficulty is that in expressing it, we use all our mental faculties, and they themselves are falseso we are cornered. Because when you follow through. Whatever you say,If this, if that, if the otheris all part of our general stupidity. Going right to the end of it, you are suddenly like this: Ah! (Mother remains suspended midway in her sentence) There is nothing more to do, not a move to make.
--
It seems like that. You mean it is He Who is playing within Himself.
That is still another way of putting it!
--
All Who experience this say that the first movement of the manifestation, or the creation (creation, manifestation, objectification: all these words are imperfect) is CHIT, Consciousness that becomes Power. Consequently, Consciousness goes voyaging along in SAT, in Beingstatic, eternal, infinite and necessarily outside time and space and this movement of Consciousness is what produces time and space within this Infinity and Eternity.8 This leads to the understanding that things can simultaneously be absolutely free and absolutely determined.
This vision I had is of no value to anyone else, but it gave me a kind of satisfaction, a kind of peace (for a while).
--
Once during the night, I went exploring inside this head; some cells still had fresh imprints of things registered during the day for whatever reason they hadnt had time to be combined into the Whole, so they showed up as tiny, very clear images, minuscule things utterly devoid of any mental or psychological movementsimply like tiny photographic images. There were three or four images like that, and it was so shocking to see them in this Presence that all at once I said to myself, Am I going mad?! It was that shocking. And I had to bring in a peace, a peacenot to make the movement of possession stop, but to accompany it simultaneously with a mighty peace so I wouldnt tell myself, Youre losing your head. Thats how shocking it was.
A tiny, very tiny image, just like a little photograph, clear! Everything else was in a vibration of transformationsplendid!
--
But for those Who are here, we can say, It is what the Supreme Lord is preparing for the earth. He sent Sri Aurobindo to prepare it; Sri Aurobindo called it the supramental realization, and to facilitate communication we can use the same words. Well, this movement (gesture of a rising flame) towards That must be constantconstant, total. All the rest is none of our business, and the less we meddle with it mentally, the better. But THAT, that Flame, is indispensable. And when it goes out, light it again; when it falters, rekindle itall the time, all the time, ALL THE TIMEwhen sleeping, walking, reading, moving around, speaking all the time.
The rest doesnt matter, one can do anything (it depends on people and their ways of thinking). You can just ask people like X, they will tell you: You can do anything at allit doesnt matter in the least. Only you mustnt feel its you doing it, thats all. You have to feel that Nature does it. But I dont much approve of this system.
--
' Whom God protects Who shall slay? Whom God has slain Who shall protect?'
The Ideal of the Karmayogin, Cent. Ed., Vol. III p. 354
--
An illustration of this is the well-known story about the man Who refused to move out of the path of an elephant on the pretext that he was Brahman and that Brahman had told him to stay put. And the mahout replied, 'But Brahman has told me that you should get out of the way and let the elephant Brahman pass.' Although childishly simplified, it's the same thing. It's because we look 'in this way' yet not , in that way' at the same time, and above all, because we don't look at EVERYTHING at the same time. From the minute we could be integral in our perception, all relationships would remain the same, but instead of being in a state of ignorance, we would experience them in a state of knowledge.
Would remain the same? You mean they would physically be the same as they are now, but would be seen in a different way?
--
Once again, Mother's experience coincides with modern science, which is beginning to discover that time and space are not fixed and INDEPENDENT quantitiesas, from the Greeks right up to Newton, we had been accustomed to believe but a four-dimensional system, with three coordinates of space and one of time, DEPENDENT UPON THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA DEVELOPING THEREIN. Such is 'Riemann's Space,' used by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity. Thus, a trajectoryi.e., in principle, a fixed distance, a quantity of space to be traversed-is a function of the time taken to traverse it: there is no straight line between two points, or rather the I straight' line is a function of the rate of speed. There is no 'fixed' quantity of space, but rather rates of speed which determine their own space (or their own measure of space). Space-time is thus no longer a fixed quantity, but, according to science, the PRODUCT ... of what? Of a certain rate of unfolding? But what is unfolding? A rocket, a train, muscles?... Or a certain brain which has generated increasingly perfected instruments adapted to its own mode of being, like a flying fish flying farther and farther (and faster and faster) but finally failing back into its own oceanic fishbowl. Yet what would this space-time be for another kind of fishbowl, another kind of consciousness: a supramental consciousness, for example, which can be instantaneously at any point in 'space'there is no more space! And no more time. There is no more 'trajectory': the trajectory is within itself. The fishbowl is shattered, and the Whole evolutionary succession of little fishbowls as well. Thus, as Mother tells it, space and time are a 'PRODUCT Of the movement of consciousness.' A variable space-time, which not only changes according to our mechanical equipment, but according to the consciousness utilizing the equipment, and which ultimately utilizes only itself; consciousness, at the end of the evolutionary curve, has become its own equipment and the sole mechanism of the universe.
***
0 1961-04-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Soon afterwards, concerning X, Who had stated that the most recent attacks against Mother, and even those of two years earlier when she had been forced to withdraw to her room, were the result of black magic, and that certain members of the Ashram were DIRECTLY responsible for them, or in any case, had served as intermediariesas a switchboard, to quote himin connection with an outside magician.)
I have been racking my brains, but really, I cant hit on Who, IN THE ASHRAM, could be doing magic against me! Having bad thoughts is very widespread, but that doesnt matter in the least.
Yet I dont understand how someone might be doing something positively evil, to the extent that X says, They will repent of it. I dont understand it, I just dont. Because usually when people are like that, they cant stay, they go. Certain people have left for just that reason. Its like this story of black magic performed at the Ashram the first time I fell ill two years ago; I cant believe it, because it would prove that I am totally unconscious! And I dont think I am.
I know all the people here. I know everything thats going on, I see it night and day. But I havent seen this. Yes, there are ill-intentioned people, but they are even obliged to tell me so! There are people Who oh, they almost wish I would leave, because they feel my presence as a constraint! They tell me so very frankly: As long as youre here, were obliged to do the yoga, but we dont want to do the yoga, we want to live quietly; so if you werent here, well, we wouldnt have to think about yoga anymore! But they are a bunch of fools with no power in them at all. As I said, they are even forced to tell me their true feelings.
There are manymany Who think I am going to die and are making preparations so as not to be left completely out on the street when I go. I am aware of all this. But its childishnessif I leave, they are right; if I dont, it doesnt matter!
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But these people just cant get out of their education! Here is a lady [A. Bailey], quite renowned, it seems (shes dead now), Who became the disciple of a Tibetan lama and she still speaks of Christ as the sole Avatar! She just cant get out of it!
And each one has the absolute Truth!
--
And I am surrounded by people Who tell me, Im sending your message to so-and-so, they MUST come here, they HAVE to meet you. Oh! Im going away! I said to myself, Im going to hide somewhere. Ive had enough.
It began with this famous World Union1 and now the Sri Aurobindo Society2 is meddling in it! They have put together a brochure saying, We will facilitate your relations with the Mother!! Luckily, the draft was sent to me. I said, I do not accept this responsibility. I agreed to be President because money is involved and I wanted to be a guarantee that all these people Who make propaganda dont put the money into their own pockets for their personal use; so I agreed to be Presidentto guarantee that the money would really go to work for Sri Aurobindo, thats all. But no spiritual responsibility; I have nothing to teach to anyone, thank God!
(Pavitra.) But Mother, A. has also been bitten by the propaganda bug; in the by-laws he sent, he put: The goal of the Centre dEtudes de Sri Aurobindo [Sri Aurobindo Study Center, in Paris] is to steer people towards Pondicherry and the Mother.
--
And thats not all. This J.M., Who thinks herself highly intelligent, has written a letter saying, It is exactly the same teachingexactly. Its always exactly the same teaching! They are abysmally ignorant.
(Satprem:) They jumble everything up.
--
The first thing I did this morning was to open this book by Alice Bailey (Ive had it for several days, I had to have a look at it). So I looked Ah, I saidwell, well! Heres a person Whos dead now, but she was the disciple of a Tibetan Buddhist lama and considered a very great spiritual leader, and she writes, Christ is the incarnation of divine love on earth. And thats that. And the world will be transformed when Christ is reborn, when he comes back to earth. But why the devil does she put Christ? Because she was born Christian? Its deplorable.
And such a mixture of everythingeverything! Instead of making a synthesis, they make a pot-pourri. They scoop it all up, toss it together, whip it up a little, use a bunch of words that have nothing to do with one another, and then serve it to you!
--
After this, I received the draft of the Sri Aurobindo Societys brochure to be distributed among all disciples, all society members, in order to encourage them. Well, that was the last straw! Oh, the most asinine propaganda! And plump in the middle of a bunch of other things (which had nothing to do with me), I come across this: We have the great fortune to have the Mother among us, and we propose to be the intermediary for all Who wish to come into direct contact with her! They wanted to print this and distribute it, just like that! So I took my brightest red ink and wrote: I do not accept this responsibility, you cannot make this promise. And that was that. I cut it. And now heres A., doing the same thing!
(silence)
--
Look here, theres a muddle in all this. The Sri Aurobindo Society people had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the spiritual life when they began; they didnt at all present themselves as a spiritual groupnothing of the kind; they were people of good will Who volunteered to collect money to help the Ashram. So I said, Very well, excellent and as long as its like that, Im behind it. Leaflets can be handed outwhatever people like; its enough if their interest is aroused, if they know there is an Ashram and that it needs some help to go on. But thats all. It has nothing to do with yoga or spiritual progress or anything of the kindit was a strictly practical organization. It was not the same thing as World Union. World Union wanted to do a spiritual work on earth and to create human unity. I told them, You are taking something of an inward nature and you want to externalize it, so naturally it immediately goes rotten.(But its almost over now, Ive pulled the rug out from under them.)
Anyway.
--
But then, they [the S.A.S. people] began posing as almost as teachers! Luckily, the draft of their brochure was brought to me. I said, Nothing doing. If you want to talk to people, tell them what you like, its all the same to me, but I am not publishing this. What you have written about me is not to be printed and you are not to distribute it. Im not in the picture. My name, the fact that I am president, is simply to give my guarantee that the money wont go into the pockets of those Who collect it but will be used for the Ashram, the running of the Ashram, and thats all. And on this basis alone I give my guarantee. I am in no way going to help people imagine they are doing a yoga! Its absurd.
The other day, I told N. (and I told him loud enough for everyone to hear): We can dispense with a good half of the ashramites straight-away and not lose a single sadhak.4
--
But the difficulty. You see, so far as Mind is concerned, the Whole yoga has been donelike a path blazed through the virgin forest. And since it has been done, its relatively simple: the landmarks are there and one follows them. But here, nothing has been done! One doesnt know which end to take hold ofno one has ever done it! [186] You meet all the same obstacles before which others have simply said, Its impossible. Sri Aurobindo explains that its not impossible, but nothing more. And he himself hadnt done it.
No, for the least little thing, the Whole mechanism has to be discovered, and discovered in a realm of the most total ignorance, where, really, unconsciousness is the most unconscious and ignorance the most ignorant.
(silence)
--
Just recently, though, I dont know what happened, but something seemed to take hold of me (how to say it?) this perception of the Supreme Who is everything, everywhere, Who does everythingwhat has been, what is, what will be, what is being doneeverything. And suddenly there was a kind of not a thought or a feeling, it wasnt that; it was rather like a state: the unreality of the goalnot unreality, uselessness. Not even uselessness: the nonexistence of the goal. And even what I was saying just nowthis will to make the experiment lingering in the body even this has gone!
Its something I dont know.11
--
It seemed to us that Mother's experience, related while in a deep trance, could be likened to that of the Rishis, Who spoke of 'an eye extended in heaven.'
The creations and 'destructions' of this world or of all worlds.
This 'secret' is no doubt part of the Secret which this entire Agenda seeks to track down. So where to stop? And if we are indiscreet, Who knows whether the secret of man is not some simian indiscretion!
***
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
59One of the greatest comforts of religion is that you can get hold of God sometimes and give him a satisfactory beating. People mock at the folly of savages Who beat their gods when their prayers are not answered; but it is the mockers Who are the fools and the savages.
Poor T.! She asked me, What does it mean (laughing) to give God a satisfactory beating? How is this possible? I still havent answered. And then she added another question: Many people say that Sri Aurobindos teachings are a new religion. Would you call it a religion? You understand, I began to fume!
--
Those Who say that are simpletons and dont even know what theyre talking about! It is enough to read everything Sri Aurobindo has written to know that it is IMPOSSIBLE (underlined) to found a religion upon his writings, since for each problem, for each question, he presents all aspects and, while demonstrating the truth contained in each approach, he explains that to attain the Truth a synthesis must be effected, overpassing all mental notions and emerging in a transcendence beyond thought.
Your second question, therefore, makes no sense! Furthermore, if you had read what appeared in the last Bulletin,1 you could never have asked it.
--
Men are such fools (laughing: it doesnt get any better!) that they can change anything at all into a religion, so great is their need for a fixed framework for their narrow thought and limited action. They dont feel secure unless they can affirm: This is true and that is not but such an affirmation becomes impossible for anyone Who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo has written. Religion and yoga are not situated on the same plane of the being, and the spiritual life can exist in its purity only if it is free from all mental dogma.
People must really be made to understand this.
--
There are people here Who do the same thing. I know some people Who had a statue of Kali in their house (it was their family divinity), and all kinds of calamities befell them, so the last generation became furious and took the idol and threw it into the Ganges. They are not the only onesthere have been several cases like that. And to cap it all, one of them even asked my permission before doing it!
Creating a god in the image of man gives you the possibility of treating it as you would treat a human enemy.
--
All this is based on the old idea that whatever the imagewhich we disdainfully call an idolwhatever the external form of the deity may be, the presence of the thing represented is always there. And there is always someonewhe ther priest or initiate, sadhu or sannyasisomeone Who has the power and (usually this is the priests work) Who draws the Force and the Presence down into it. And its true, its quite real the Force and the Presence are THERE; and this (not the form in wood or stone or metal) is what is worshipped: this Presence.
Europeans dont have the inner sense at all. To them, everything is like this (gesture), a surfacenot even that, a film on the surface. And they cant feel anything behind. But its an absolutely real fact that the Presence is there I guarantee it. People have given me statuettes of various gods, little things in metal, wood or ivory; and as soon as I take one in my hand, the god is there. I have a Ganesh2 (I have been given several) and if I take it in my hand and look at it for a moment, hes there. I have a little one by my bedside where I work, eat, and meditate. And then there is a Narayana3 which comes from the Himalayas, from Badrinath. I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! (My handkerchiefs are kept on a little table next to my bed, and I keep Ganapati and Narayana on top of them.) And no one touches them but me I pick them up, take a fresh handkerchief, and put them back again. Once I blended some nail polish myself, and before applying it, I put some on Ganapatis forehead and stomach and fingertips! We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is very true.
--
I remember once going into a church (which I wont name) and I found it a very beautiful place. It wasnt a feast or ceremony day, so it was empty. There were just one or two people at prayer. I went in and sat down in a little chapel off to the side. Someone was praying there, someone Who must have been in distressshe was crying and praying. And there was a statue, I no longer know of Whom: Christ or the Virgin or a Saint I have no idea. And, oh! Suddenly, in place of the statue, I saw an enormous spider like a tarantula, you know, but (gesture) huge! It covered the entire wall of the chapel and was just waiting there to swallow all the vital force of the people Who came. It was heart-rending. I said to myself, Oh, these people There was this miserable woman Who had come seeking solace, Who was praying there, weeping, hoping to find solace; and instead of reaching a consciousness that was at least compassionate, her supplications were feeding this monster!
I have seen other things but I have rarely seen anything favorable in churches. Here, I remember going to M I was taken inside and received there in quite an unusual waya highly respected person introduced me as a great saint! They led me up to the main altar where people are not usually allowed to go, and what did I see there! An asura (oh, not a very high-ranking one, more like a rakshasa4), but such a monster! Hideous. So I went wham! (gesture of giving a blow) I thought something was going to happen. But this being left the altar and came over to try to intimidate me; of course, he saw it was useless, so he offered to make an alliance: If you just keep quiet and dont do anything, I will share all I get with you. Well, I sent him packing! The head of this Math5. It was a Math with a monastery and temple, which means a substantial fortune; the head of the Math has it all at his disposal for as long as he holds the position and he is appointed for life. But he has to name his successor and as a rule, his own life is considerably shortened by the successorthis is how it works. Everyone knew that the present head had considerably shortened the life of his predecessor. And what a creature! As asuric as the god he worshipped! I saw some poor fellows throw themselves at his feet (he must have been squeezing them pitilessly), to beg forgiveness and mercyan absolutely ruthless man. But he received meyou should have seen it! I said nothing, not a word about their god; I gave no sign that I knew anything. But I thought to myself, So thats how it is!
Another thing happened to me in a fishing village near A., on the seashore, where there is a temple dedicated to Kalia terrible Kali. I dont know what happened to her, but she had been buried with only her head sticking out! A fantastic story I knew nothing about it at all. I was going by car from A. to this temple and halfway there a black form, in great agitation, came rushing towards me, asking for my help: Ill give you everything I haveall my power, all the peoples worshipif you help me to become omnipotent! Of course, I answered her as she deserved! I later asked Who this was, and they told me that some sort of misfortune had befallen her and she had been buried with only her head above ground. And every year this fishing village has a festival and slaughters thousands of chickensshe likes chicken! Thousands of chickens. They pluck them on the spot (the Whole place gets covered with feathers), and then, after offering the blood and making the sacrifice, the people, naturally, eat them all up. The day I came this had taken place that very morningfea thers littered everywhere! It was disgusting. And she was asking for my help!
But the curious thing is that these vital beings are aware of what is happening. I knew nothing about any of it, neither the story, nor the being, nor the head sticking out of the ground and she wanted me to get her out of it. They feel the atmosphere. They are awarethey may not be conscious on higher planes, but they are conscious on vital planes, aware of vital power and the vital force it represents. Its like this asura from M.: when I came in he suddenly seemed to tremble on his pedestal; then he left his idol and came to seek my alliance.
--
Of course, my mother was such an out-and-out materialist, thank God, that it was impossible to speak to her of invisible thingsshe took them as evidence of a deranged brain! Nothing counted for her but what could be touched and seen. But this was a divine grace I had no opportunity to say anything. I kept my experience to myself. But it was one of my first contacts with. I learned later that it was an entity from the past Who had come back into me through the aspiration arising from the music.
But I have rarely had an experience in churches. Rather the opposite: I have very often had the painful experience of the human effort to find solace, a divine compassion falling into very bad hands.
--
At the age of eighteen, I remember having such an intense need in me to KNOW. Because I was having experiences I had all kinds of experiences but my surroundings offered me no chance to receive an intellectual knowledge which would have given me the meaning of it all: I couldnt even speak of them. I was having experience after experience. For years, I had experiences during the night (but I was very careful never to speak about them!)memories from past lives, all sorts of things, but without any base of intellectual knowledge. (Of course, the advantage of this was that my experiences were not mentally contrived; they were entirely spontaneous.) But I had such a NEED in me to know! I remember living in a house (one of these houses with a lot of apartments), and in the apartment next door were some young Catholics Whose faith was very they were very convinced. And seeing all that, I remember saying to myself one day while brushing my hair, These people are lucky to be born into a religion and believe unquestioningly! Its so easy! You have nothing to do but believehow simple that makes it. I was feeling like this, and then when I realized what I was thinking (laughing), well, I gave myself a good scolding: Lazybones!
To know, know, KNOW! You see, I knew nothing, really, nothing but the things of ordinary life: external knowledge. I had learned everything I had been given to learn. I not only learned what I was taught but also what my brother was taughthigher mathematics and all that! I learned and I learned and I learned and it was NOTHING. None of it explained anything to menothing. I couldnt understand a thing!
--
It was to happen to me two years later when I met someone Who told me of Theons teaching.
When I was told that the Divine was within the teaching of the Gita, but in words understandable to a Westerner that there was an inner Presence, that one carried the Divine within oneself, oh! What a revelation! In a few minutes, I suddenly understood all, all, all. Understood everything. It brought the contact instantly.
--
No, but this is something else. Those Who are capable of personal experiences pass through everything. But not the common herd.
(silence)
I have had discussionsnot discussions, exchanges of viewswith prelates. There was one cardinal in particular. I told him my experience, what I KNEW. He replied, Whether you want to or not, you belong to the Church; because those Who know belong to the Church. And he added, You have the knowledge we are taught when we become cardinals. Nobody has taught me anything, I said, this is my experience. Then he repeated, Whether you like it or not, you belong to the Church. I felt like telling him a thing or two, but I didnt.
Otherwise, you just keep turning in circles, oh, caught by the form, locked in by the form!
I remember a good-hearted priest in Pau [Southern France] Who was an artist and wanted to have his church decorateda tiny cathedral. He consulted a local anarchist (a great artist) about it. The anarchist was acquainted with Andrs father and me. He told the priest, I recommend these people to do the paintings they are true artists. He was doing the mural decorationsome eight panels in all, I believe. So I set to work on one of the panels. (The church was dedicated to San Juan de Compostello, a hero of Spanish history; he had appeared in a battle between the Christians and the Moors and his apparition vanquished the Moors. And he was magnificent! He appeared in golden light on a white horse, almost like Kalki.6) All the slaughtered and struggling Moors were depicted at the bottom of the painting, and it was I Who painted them; it was too hard for me to climb high up on a ladder to paint, so I did the things at the bottom! But anyway, it all went quite well. Then, naturally, the priest received us and invited us to dinner with the anarchist. And he was so nicereally a kind-hearted man! I was already a vegetarian and didnt drink, so he scolded me very gently, saying, But its Our Lord Who gives us all this, so why shouldnt you take it? I found him charming. And when he looked at the paintings, he tapped Morisset on the shoulder (Morisset was an unbeliever), and said, with the accent of Southern France, Say what you like, but you know Our Lord; otherwise you could never have painted like that!
Well.
--
And experiences! I have had the most contradictory experiences! Only one thing has been continuous from my childhood on (and the more I look, the more I see how continuous it has been): this divine Presence and in someone Who, in her EXTERNAL LIFE, might very well have said, God? What is this foolishness! God doesnt exist! So you understand, you see the picture.
You know, its a marvelous, marvelous grace to have had this experience so CONSTANTLY, So POWERFULLY, like something holding out against everything, everything: this Presence. And in my outward consciousness, a total negation of it all. Even later on, I used to say, Well, if God exists, hes a real scoundrel! Hes a wretch and I want nothing to do with this Creator of ours. You know, the idea of God sitting placidly in his heaven, creating the world and amusing himself by watching it, then telling you, How well done! Oh! I said, I want nothing to do with that monster!
--
Ganesh (or Ganapati): The first son of the Supreme Mother, represented with an elephant trunk and an ample belly. Ganesh is the god Who presides over material realizations (over money in particular). He is also known as the scribe of divine knowledge.
Narayana: another name of Vishnu, one of the gods of the Hindu trinity. He watches over the creation, whereas Brahma is the creator and Shiva the destroyer.
0 1961-05-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have seen people (people from outside) Who were enemiesall their enmity was pacified, pacified, pacified. They were unable to do any harm, even when they wanted to. Everything was made innocuous in that way. And it was the same thing here in the Ashram; as always, people had wrong movements and wrong thoughts, but all this, too, was dominatedit was pacified, pacified.
I had continued to work in the same way. But now its as if everything has been engulfed. And the number of ugly things, petty movements, nasty reactionseverywhere, everywhere, in everyone, oh! I am swamped with letters, and such letters! Such letters!
0 1961-05-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Aphorism 60There is no mortality. It is only the Immortal Who can die; the mortal could neither be born nor perish.
The Immortal can pass from the condition of life to the condition of death (but not death as we understand it); can die means can change condition. The Immortal can pass from this condition to that condition and back and forth again. We call it death, but it has nothing to do with either life or death. They are changes of state.
--
Unless one has the sense of the TRUE LIFE, of the Truthit is nothing, nothing. All the rest is nothing, nothingpastimes, childish amusements, the business of people Who have nothing else to do. Ah, no! Its not worth a seconds thought.
You dont understand.
--
The notebook of a disciple Who asks questions on the Aphorisms which Mother 'must' answer regularly.
***
0 1961-05-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That is another matter. After all, you are writing it for people Who know nothing.
Yes, I agree, but still.
--
Not very long ago I met someone from France Who told me, Personally, you understand, I had no wish at all to read Sri AurobindoSri Aurobindo translated by H.: no, thank you. And then he read some things translated here. Ah, he said, that makes a difference!
But still, I am not satisfied.
--
There are successive curves, each second of which would have to be noted down; and in the course of one of these curves, something is suddenly found. For example, at the beginning of The Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo reviews other yogas, beginning with Hatha Yoga. I had just translated this when I remembered Sri Aurobindo saying that Hatha Yoga was very effective but that it amounted to spending your Whole life training your body, which is an enormous time and effort spent on something not essentially very interesting. Then I looked at it and said to myself, But after all, (I was looking at life as it is, as people ordinarily live it) one spends at least 90% of ones life merely to PRESERVE ones body, to keep it going! All this attention and concentration on an instrument which is put to hardly any use. Anyway, I was looking at it with that attitude, when suddenly all the cells of my body responded, in such a spontaneous and WARM way. How to say it? Something so so moving. They told me, But its the Lord Who is looking after Himself in us! Each one was saying: But its the Lord Who is looking after Himself in us!
It was truly lovely. Then I gave my reason a good poke: How stupid can you be! You always forget the essential.
--
This feeling was so warm, so intimate, so I dont know how to express it. At once so soft and so powerful and so. Oh, it was concrete! The Whole atmosphere, the Whole atmosphere became solidall, all had the taste of the Lord. I dont know how to make it clear. It was quite material, as if you had a mouthful of it, everything was full of itit was like that. In such a PHYSICAL way! Like. You might compare it to the most delicious taste you could ever haveit was the sense of touch and of tastevery, very material. It was like closing your hand on something solidsuch a warm, soft vibration, and SO STRONG, so powerful, so concrete!
It is evidently proof of an evolution in this direction, within this Whole cluster of cells, but.
Finally, we want something else.
--
This was the first time I had this experience. It was much more substantial than the physical contact, which, as I told you, I had already had.1 It was much more material, and related to taste. It was as if the Whole atmosphere and all the things in it were a marvelous food an ecstatic nourishment.
I had already had the experience for the sense of smell the divine vibration, the vibration of Ananda in odors. Just under my window, you know, Nripendra has his kitchen, where every morning and afternoon food is prepared for the children2it all comes wafting up on gusts of air. And when the Samadhi tree is in flower, the scent wafts up to me on gusts of air; when people burn incense down below, it comes wafting up here on gusts of aireach and every fragrance (fragrancelets say odor). And generally it all comes while I am walking for my japaan Ananda of odors, each one with its meaning, its expression, its (how to say it?) its motivation and its goal. Marvelous! And there are no longer any good or bad odors that notion is gone completely. Each one has its meaningits meaning and its raison dtre. I have been experiencing this for a long time.
--
Its not the body complaining, it doesnt complain at all I am the one Who complains! I think that its doing its best, but its thwarted by this type of (one can scarcely speak of a mind) this kind of mind-like activity in matter3 interfering. t is sordid. I havent yet been able to eliminate it completely.
There are moments when its brought to a dead halt. Oh, sometimes while I walk for the japa everything is held like this (gesture of all being dominated from above and immobilized), inflexibly.
But then the difficulty is that for the ordinary consciousness and unfortunately I am surrounded by a lot of people Who have a very ordinary consciousness (at least it seems very ordinary to me, although from the human standpoint they are probably rather remarkable people)for the ordinary consciousness I seem to be in a stupor, a coma, a state of imbecility, of yes, of torpor. It has all those appearances. Something which becomes immobile, unresponsive, stopped short (same gesture as before); one can no longer think, one can no longer observe, one can no longer react, one can no longer do anything, one is like that (same gesture). But all these things keep coming from outside, all the time, coming and trying to interrupt that state; yet if I manage to prevent this, if I can keep this condition, after a while it becomes something so MASSIVE! So concrete in its power, so massive in its immobility, ohh! It must lead somewhere.
But I could not remain in that state long enough (it would have to go on for HOURS), I could not, due to all these constant interruptions. And then, when the body is pulled brusquely out of it, it seems to lose its balanceit has a few difficult moments.
I understand people Who choose to leave! But thats not what is wanted of me! I should have enough flexibility so that the two can exist together (gesture expressing the interlocking or the fusion of the two worlds).
(silence)
0 1961-05-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother reviews some earlier Questions and Answers. In one of themdated November 14, 1956someone had asked if mastery over circumstances depended on self-mastery, citing the case of Vivekananda, Who was said to possess great mastery over circumstances even though he could not master his own anger.)
I never knew Vivekananda. I only know what I have heard or read about him, but that isnt what I call knowing. So I cant say anything, and above all I dont want to seem to give credence to all the gossip that has been spread about him. I have had no personal contact with him, neither in the physical nor elsewherenot with him personally. Naturally I could if I made an effort, but.
--
So all these things [the earlier Questions and Answers] seem quite childish to me, quite childishirrelevant chatter. You are outside the garden talking about what is within. It would be best to delete the Whole thing.
(In vain, Satprem protests, complaining that Mother always wants to delete everything.)
0 1961-06-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding an earlier 'Questions and Answers'March 13, 1957where Mother says: 'And finally, isn't the Divine the best friend one could have? The Divine to Whom one can tell all, reveal all, because here is the source of all mercy, of all power to efface error when it no longer recurs....' Surprised, Satprem blurts out.)
But theres no more problem when the error no longer recurs! Isnt it when the error recurs that it needs to be effaced?
--
Thou art the sure friend Who never fails,
the Power, the Support, the Guide. Thou art
--
the Conqueror Who assures the victory.
It was a series of experiences resulting from external circumstances. And then I speak of the tears shed, not for oneself but for others. (Mother reads a passage dated July 12, 1918:)
--
that my Whole being quivers with joy.
Let me stammer out my offering3:
--
O Supreme and only Confidant, Thou Who
knowest beforeh and all we can say to Thee
--
O Supreme and only Friend, Thou Who acceptest,
Thou Who lovest, Thou Who understandest us
just as we are, because it is Thyself
Who hast so made us.
O Supreme and only Guide,
Thou Who never gainsayest our highest will
because it is Thou Thyself Who willest in it!
It would be folly to seek elsewhere than in Thee
for one Who will listen, understand, love and guide,
since always Thou art there
--
It was an odd thing, it seized me suddenly I was no longer able to climb the stairs! I didnt know how to do it! It also took hold of me once as I was having lunch I no longer knew how to eat! This, of course, is what the external world calls lapsing into second childhood. So I considered the problem of the poor old people Who are thought to be lapsing into their second childhoodsmight they not, by chance, be on the frontier of liberation?! Perhaps.
My brain is good!! (Mother laughs)
Its good, but my skull. You know, there are people Who read your character from the shape of your skullit would be interesting to have one of them touch mine. Mon petit, its a mountain range! With peaks and valleys! There are deep hollows, precipices, Himalayan peaks! And its increasing!
Increasing!
0 1961-06-06, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Something must definitely be done which is free of that Whole useless jumble about Who his father was and so forthpah! I dont like that sort of thing.
Yes, its a grab-bag of odds and endsvery important letters are mixed in with all sorts of pointlessness. Take the ICS. examination, for instance they seem to be pleading Sri Aurobindos case! Its ridiculous.2
--
Oh, it was so lovely yesterday! The Whole dayand all, all, all was the same as nowall the circumstances, the condition of the body, everything. It cant even be said that in one case the body was well and in the other it wasntit isnt true, it was all the same thing, all was the same. But in one case you floatyou float in a beatific light which carries you for all Eternity; and in the other case you seem to be walking through shifting sands without seeing clearly, without understandingdeadened, absolutely deadened.
Thats why I had difficulty listening to you just now [during the work], because since last night I have been constantly facing this problem, and all morning long Ive had to you know, do like this (Mother clenches her fist, as though getting a grip on herself) in order to come here and listen. I didnt feel like seeing anyone, doing anything only staying like this (Mother keeps still, her arms at her sides) until that problem is willing to explain itself.
0 1961-06-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a contemplation going right up to the Supreme, with a constant, continuous Descent: something which doesnt waver the Whole time (doesnt waver I mean doesnt vary), during the Whole meditation. But if I ask him what happened, hell tell me a little story!
Yesterday I saw N. and he told me, Oh! X had an experience during the meditation with you this morning. Ah! I said to myself, This is going to be interesting. (I was wrong to think so, by the way, even for a quarter of a second.) Yes, he told me, he saw what seemed to be a transparent golden veil descending over you; and by your side were flowers like roses, or colored like roses, with the feet of a child upon them.
0 1961-06-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yesterday, when I was in that immobility, suddenly I felt something obliging me to turn my head. I didnt turn my head, but the consciousness turned (gesture to the left), and then I saw myself standing there in the corridor (that kind of corridor separating the hall and Sri Aurobindos room) in my usual outdoor dress [Indian shirt and light trousers]. I was standing up very straight and holding a globe of light above my head and such a light! It was shining brighter than those strong electric bulbsdazzling. My own clothing seemed to be made of golden-pink light. I was standing very straight and carrying this globe (gesture above the head). When I saw that I said to myself, Now why on earth is he making me see this? And that was all. Nothing else happened except that. But near me there was a figure I didnt know, and it reminded me of Xs great guru,1 Whom I had already seen once. There he was by my side, a tall figure, and he seemed to be the one Who had tugged at me to make me see that vision.
It was a large globe. Although no distinct rays could be seen, it appeared to be projecting innumerable rays like flashes of lightning. It was sparkling all over.
--
I truly have the impression of a kind of abyss between the X I can sense, Who attracts me, and the outer man.
I dont know the outer X, I have been very careful not to enter into contact with him! But from the first day I sensed a gap.
--
Sri Aurobindo was completely against it. Somewhere he makes fun of a man Who said he was the Supreme and that whatever he did, it wasnt he himself doing itand then he was angry when his meal was late! But of course it wasnt him: the stomach-nature was angry!2
Its one of the most ironic things Sri Aurobindo has written.
--
The tantric guru Sri Aurobindo met in 1907 and from Whom he received mental silence.
***
0 1961-06-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These things are very interesting. They must form part of the work I have come on earth to do. Because even before encountering Theon, before knowing anything, I had experiences at night, certain types of activities looking after people Who were leaving their bodiesand with a knowledge of the process; I didnt know what I was doing nor did I seek to know, yet I knew exactly what had to be done and I did it. I was around twenty.
As soon as I came upon Theons teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadnt known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to constructbetween the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmospherea path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldnt have to pass through it (for those Who are conscious but without knowledge its a very difficult passageinfernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I dont remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during that timeextraordinary. I could tell long stories.
Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. Yes, she told me, it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being Who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through. And this work is constant. Constant. It has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. Ive had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examplesits really very interesting.
Lately it has increased, become more precise.
There is a boy here, V., Who is especially interested in what happens at the moment of death (this seems to be one reason why he has reincarnated). Hes a conscious boy, a remarkable clairvoyant, and he has a power. And we have had (how to put it?) some quite interesting correlations of experiences concerning people Who pass away here. Extremely interesting and extraordinarily precise: he sends word to me, I reply, and at night when the disincarnated person comes he says, Mother has done this and says to do that, and the person does it. And we dont need to speaksuch precision!
This happens in sleep?
--
I was keeping I.B. near me because I already had the idea of putting him immediately back into another bodyhis soul was not satisfied, it had not finished its experience (there was a Whole combination of circumstances) and it wanted to continue to live on earth. Then, that night, his inner being went to find V., lamenting, saying he was dead and hadnt wanted to die, that he had lost his body and wanted to continue to live. V. was very perplexed. He let me know about it in the morning: Heres what has happened. I sent word to him of what I was doing, that I was keeping I.B. in my atmosphere and that he should stay very calm and not get excited, for I was going to put him back into a body as soon as possible I already had something in view. The same evening I.B. again went to find V., with the same complaint. V. told him very clearly, Here is what Mother says, here is what she is going to do; come now, be calm and dont torment yourself. And he saw in I.B.s face that he had understood (the inner being was taking on I.B.s physical appearance, naturally); his face relaxed, he became content.
He went away and he never came back. That is, he stayed tranquilly with me, until I was able to put him into C.s child.
--
There have been very, very few cases, a quite minimal number, when people have called (not very sincerely) and their call hasnt had much effect. But even these people have a protection. There was a woman here, an old woman Who was not very sincere (she didnt live hereshe only came to visit) and the last time she visited she fell ill and died. Then I saw that she was completely dispersed into all her desires, all her memories, all her attachments and it had all been scattered here and there, into all sorts of things (one part of her was seeking, seeking where to go and what to do); anyway, it was rather pitiful. Afterwards I was asked, How did it happen? She was calling all the time. I replied that I had not heard her callit must not have been very sincere, only a formula.4
But its very rare that people get no response.
Not long ago M.s sister died (psychologically, she was in a terrible stateshe had no faith). Well, on that day,5 just when I came to know that she was passing away, I remember being upstairs in the bathroom communicating with Sri Aurobindo, having a sort of conversation with him (it happens very often), and I asked him, What happens to such people when they die here at the Ashram? Look, he replied, and I saw her passing away; and on her forehead, I saw Sri Aurobindos symbol in a SOLID golden light (not very luminous, but very concrete). There it was. And with the presence of this sign the psychological state no longer matterednothing touched her. And she departed tranquilly, tranquilly. Then Sri Aurobindo told me, All Who have lived at the Ashram and Who die there have automatically the same protection, whatever their inner state.
I cant say I was surprised, but I admired the mighty power by which the simple fact of having been here and died here was sufficient to help you to the utmost in that transition.
But there are all sorts of cases. Take N.D., for example, a man Who lived his Whole life with the idea of serving Sri Aurobindohe died clasping my photo to his breast. This was a consecrated man, very conscious, with an unfailing dedication, and all the parts of his being well organized around the psychic.6 The day he was going to leave his body little M. was meditating next to the Samadhi when suddenly she had a vision: she saw all the flowers of the tree next to the Samadhi (those yellow flowers I have called Service) gathering themselves together to form a big bouquet, and rising, rising straight up. And in her vision these flowers were linked with the image of N.D. She ran quickly to their house andhe was dead.
I only knew about this vision later, but on my side, when he left, I saw his Whole being gathered together, well united, thoroughly homogenous, in a great aspiration, and rising, rising without dispersing, without deviating, straight up to the frontier of what Sri Aurobindo has called the higher hemisphere, there where Sri Aurobindo in his supramental action presides over earth. And he melted into that light.
Some time before his heart attack he said to his children: the gown is old, it must be thrown away.
--
But its simply thatyou take a step, and you enter another room. And when you live in your soul there is a continuity, because the soul remembers, it keeps the Whole memory; it remembers all occurrences, even outer occurrences, all the outer movements it has been associated with. So its a continuous, uninterrupted movement, here and there, from one room to another, from one house to another, from one life to another.
People are so ignorant! Thats what irritates those Who have passed to the other sidepeople dont understand, they shoo them away: What does he want? Why does he bother me? Hes DEAD!
***
--
This is all Xs work. The most unexpected people, people youd think would rather be cursed than come to a place like this, are coming from everywhere, from the most diverse milieus the most materialistic materialists, fanatical communists, as well as all sorts of sannyasis, bhikkus, swamis, priestsoh! People Who previously were not at all they werent so much disinterested as actually displeased with the Ashram.
We have a disciple here Who returns to his birthplace from time to time, and after the first year X began to do his puja to get people interested in the Ashram, he said it was extraordinary. He had previously been looked at askance and had to argue with people, but now everyone came to call on him as soon as he arrived! He wrote that he was completely astonished (he wasnt aware of Xs work); hundreds of people came to ask him to hold huge meetings; sadhus, monks and priests came to him for information on the Ashram. Things have developed so rapidly and completely that they now have some land where they have built a center and hold meetings.
And its like that almost everywhere.
--
Do you know the story of the two simultaneous operations of E. and of T.? T. is that vice-admiral Who came here and became quite enthusiastiche had a kind of inner revelation here. The two of them were operated on for a similar complaint, a dangerous ulcer in the digestive system. He was in one town and she was in another, and they were operated on a day apartboth serious operations. And in each case, after a few days had gone by, the surgeon Who did the operation said, I congratulate you. Practically the same phrase in both cases. And they both protested: Why are you congratulating me? (Each one wrote me about this separately; they were living far from one another and only met afterwards.) Why? You did the operationyou should be congratulated for my quick recovery. And in both cases the doctor replied, No, no; we only operate, the body does the healing; you have healed yourself in a way which can qualify as miraculous, and I genuinely congratulate you. And then the two of them had the same reaction they wrote to me saying, We know where the miracle comes from. And they had both called me. Moreover, E. had written me a remarkable letter a few days before her operation, where she quoted the Gita as if it were quite natural for her, and told me, I know that the operation is ALREADY done, that the Lord has already done it, and so I am calm.
Things like that, everywhere and PRECISE! Something quite precise. Of course, to say that I work consciously is almost silly, its commonplace. But in many cases one may work consciously for long years without getting that precision in the result the action enters a hazy atmosphere and makes a kind of stir, and out of it comes the best that can, but no more than that. But now its exact, preciseits becoming interesting.
--
Among Mother's papers we have found the following, which indicates that a state of dispersion after death is rather frequent (it concerns a disciple's mother Who did not herself live at the Ashram): 'She has left her body without being at all prepared for the change of condition and has found herself disoriented and rather dispersed. She will need some time to recover from this dispersion before anything useful can be done for her.'
May 17, 1959.
0 1961-06-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, one can conceive of a universe being thrown out of the present manifestation that, yes; one can conceive of successive universes, with what was in the first universes no longer being in the othersits even obvious. One can imagine how a Whole sum of falsity and untruth (what for us, NOW, is falsity and untruth) may come to no longer belong to the world in its future unfolding; one can comprehend all that. But destroy? Where can it go to be destroyed? When we say something is destroyed, its only a form which is destroyed (it may be a form of consciousness, it may not be a material form, but its always a form). But how can the formless be destroyed?
Therefore, to speak of an absolute falsehood disappearing would simply mean that a Whole set of things will live eternally in the past but not belong to the coming manifestations, thats all.
You cant get out of THAT, can you? There you are!
--
We are told that when you ascend both beyond Nirvana or Nothingness and beyond Existence (the two SIMULTANEOUS and complementary aspects of the Supreme), there is a state of consciousness where all simultaneously and eternally exists. Thusalthough God knows, it may be yet another stupiditywe can conceive of a Whole set of things passing into Non-Being, and for our consciousness this would be disappearance or destruction.
Is it possible? I dont know. We would have to ask the Lord! But He generally doesnt answer such questionsHe just smiles!
--
I have what could be called a tactile sensation that the contents of the subtle atmosphere are increasing. This atmosphere is not part of material space as we conceive of or see it physically, where one thing has to give place to another (Mother changes the position of an eraser on the table)and even that (laughing) I believe is an illusion! It only SEEMS like that to us! Its not on the Wholly material plane, but just behind or within (how to put it?), and its contents are increasing. And as its happening within inner dimensions, it can augment, so to speak, indefinitely; things become more and more interwoven, if you see what I meanwhere there was one phenomenon of consciousness there may now be hundreds, interwoven with each other in the inner dimensions; which means, for example, considering only our tiny planet, that the earth is becoming more and more compact and rich with all that has been since the beginning of its formationbecause its all there, it is all still there.
Actually, as soon as one is not totally, totally tied down by the physical sense organs. For example, I am more and more frequently experiencing changes in the quality of vision. Quite recently, yesterday or the day before, I was sitting in the bathroom drying my face before going out and I raised my eyes (I was sitting before a mirror, although I dont usually look at myself); I raised my eyes and looked, and I saw many things (Mother laughs, greatly amused). At that moment, I had an experience which made me say to myself, Ah! Thats why, from the physical, purely material standpoint, my vision seems to be a bit blurred. Because what I was seeing was MUCH clearer and infinitely more expressive than normal physical sight. And I recalled that it is with these clearer eyes that I see and recognize all my people at balcony darshan. (From the balcony I recognize all my people.) And its that vision (but with open eyes!) which. It is of another order.
--
Sometimes, all of a sudden, I see myself as a FORMIDABLE concentration of power, pushing, pushing, pushing in an inner concentration to pass through. It happens to me anywhere, any time, at any moment I see a Whole mass of consciousness gathered into a formidable power pushing, pushing, pushing to pass to the other side.
When we have passed to the other side, all will be well.
0 1961-07-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night or the night before you were associated with an experience. Following my reading [On Himself] I had a sense of how very small we are and of how to expand. You were associated, very intimately associated with this expansion. Sri Aurobindo was there (you know he has adopted you as his biographer; I have told you this and I repeat it because I have evidence of it all the time), and he was giving a kind of practical demonstrationnot intellectual, practicalof how to expand not only the consciousness but the Whole being, down to its most material parts. You were there, associated with this, and he was showing you as well as me what had to be done. (Mother makes a gesture of breaking through limits.)
This made me very glad.
0 1961-07-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ah! I have seen T., Who told me she was finding it too difficult to ask questions [on Sri Aurobindos Aphorisms] because it always seemed to be the same thing! So now she has nothing to ask. We have decided she wont ask any more questions, unless, by chance, something suddenly arouses a question in her. Otherwise, no more questions (Mother breathes a sigh of relief).
63God is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can afford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary.
--
I am putting this purposely into rather childish terms so that it will be clearly understood. But this is the way it is. I am sure of it because I have observed it in myself for a VERY long time, and I had to. Due to the Whole subconscious formation of childhoodenvironment, education, and so forthwe have to DRUM into this (Mother touches her body) the consciousness of Unity : the absolute, EXCLUSIVE unity of the Divineexclusive in the sense that nothing exists apart from this Unity, even the things which seem most repulsive.
Sri Aurobindo also had to struggle against this because he too received a Christian education. And these Aphorisms are the result the floweringof the necessity to struggle against the subconscious formation which has produced such questions (Mother takes on a scandalized tone): How can God be weak? How can God be foolish? How. But there is nothing but God! He alone exists, there is nothing outside of Him. And whatever seems repugnant to us is something He no longer wishes to existHe is preparing the world so that this no longer manifests, so that the manifestation can pass beyond this state to something else. So of course we violently reject everything in us that is destined to leave the active manifestation. There is a movement of rejection.
--
In any case, there it isasking that kind of question is still taking the attitude of those Who make a distinction between what is Divine and what is not Divine, or rather what is God and what is not God. How can He be weak? Its a question I could never ask.
I quite understand. But when one speaks of the Lila, the divine play, it implies that He in some way remains in the background and doesnt really get into the act, as they say that Hes no really part of the game, but simply watches.
--
Our Whole way of thinking is wrong!
All the believers, all the faithful (those from the West in particular) think in terms of something else when they speak of GodHe cannot be weak, ugly, imperfect, He is something immaculate but this is wrong thinking. They are dividing, separating. For subconscious thought (I mean thinking without reflecting, instinctively, out of habit, without observing oneself thinking), what is generally considered perfection is precisely what is seen or felt or postulated as being virtuous, divine, beautiful, admirable but its not that at all! Perfection means something in which nothing is missing. The divine perfection is a totality. The divine perfection is the Divine in his Wholeness, with nothing left out. The divine perfection is the Whole of the Divine, with nothing subtracted from it. For the moralists it is the exact opposite: divine perfection is nothing but the virtues they stand for!
From the true standpoint, the divine perfection is the Whole (Mother makes a global gesture), and the fact that within this Whole nothing can be missing is precisely what makes it perfect.1 Consequently, perfection means that each thing is in its place, exactly what it should be, and that relationships among things are also exactly what they should be.
Perfection is one way to approach the Divine; Unity is another. But Perfection is a global approach: all is there and all is as it should be that is to say, the perfect expression of the Divine (you cant even say of His Will, because that still implies something apart, something emanating from Him!).
--
Yes. I marvel at people Who have the same experience several times over, Who hold on to their realizations I have never been able to do so. There was a time when I tried, but I realized it was stupid, so I dont try anymore. I have never had the same experience twicenever could.
The experience I described the day I said I have something to tell you [January 24, 1961] was truly very pleasant and I did try to relive it but I never could. Whenever I try, whenever something in me insists on recapturing the experience, I always see a Smile and something tells me, No, no! Let go! Youll see, youll see. So I let go.
--
Mother later clarified this point: 'It is impossible for anything to be missing because it is impossible for anything not to be part of the Whole. Nothing can exist apart from the Whole. But I am taking this now to its extreme limit of meaningnot down-to-earth, but to the heights, to the extreme limits of meaning. I will explain: everything is not necessarily contained within a given universe, because one universe is only one mode of manifestation but all possible universes exist. And so I always come back to the same thing: nothing can exist apart from the Whole. If we give the Whole the name of "God," for example, then we say that nothing can exist apart from Him. But words are so earthbound, aren't they?' (Mother makes a down-to-earth gesture.)
See 'Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells,' Agenda I, pp. 337-350.
0 1961-07-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This japa, you know, didnt at all come from here (Mother points to her head). Its something I received fully formed, and to such an extent that I couldnt even change the place of a single thinga will seemed to oppose any change. Its a long series unfolding according to a law that probably corresponds to what is needed to develop this consciousness and the work it has to do (I suppose I dont really know and I havent tried to know). But a sort of law makes it impossible to change the position of even a single word, because these are not wordsthey are fully formed states of consciousness. And the Whole series culminates with:
Manifest Your Love.
0 1961-07-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Obviously, were I to leave now I can say there would be a halt, because I dont see anyone at the moment Who could continue. But theres a good chance that. We will see.
Yes, we will see.
--
In the final analysis, everything obviously depends upon the Supremes Will because, if one looks deeply enough into the question, even physical laws and resistances are nothing for Him. But this kind of direct intervention takes place only at the extreme limit; if His Will is to be expressed in opposition, as it were, to the Whole set of laws governing the Manifestationwell, that only comes at the very last second. Sri Aurobindo has expressed this so well in Savitri, so well! At least three times in the book he has expressed this Will that abolishes all established laws, all of them, and all the consequences of these laws, the Whole formidable colossus of the Manifestation, so that in the face of it all, That can express itself and this takes place at the very last second, so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.
I must say that there was a time when, as Sri Aurobindo had entrusted his work to me, there was a kind of tension to do it (it cant be called an anxiety); a tension in the will. This too has now ended (Mother stretches her arms into the Infinite). Its finished. But there MAY still be something tense lurking somewhere in the subconscient or the inconscient I dont know, its possible. Why? I dont know. I mean I have never been told, at any time, neither through Sri Aurobindo nor directly, whether or not I would go right to the end. I have never been told the contrary, either. I have been told nothing at all. And if at times I turn towards Thatnot to question, but simply to know the answer is always the same: Carry on, its not your problem; dont worry about it. So now I have learned not to worry about it; I am consciously not worried about it.
--
But there has evidently been some rather considerable progress, because lately the enormity of the thing has been shown to me far more concretely, oh! I tell you, it has reached the point where all spiritual life, all these peoples and races Who have been trying since the beginning of the earth, Who have made so many efforts to realize somethingit all seems like nothing, like childs play. Its nothing: you smile and then you are joyous. Its nothing at all, nothing at all!
To put things in ordinary terms, mon petit, this work is without glory! You get no results, no experiences filling you with ecstasy or joy or wondernone of that. It is hideous, a hideous labor.
--
And that was when I received the Command from the Supreme, Who was right here, this close (Mother presses her face). He told me, This is what is promised. Now the Work must be done.
And not individual but collective work was meant. So naturally, because of the way it came, it was joyously accepted and immediately implemented.
--
He has written: I am not doing it individually, for myself, but for the Whole earth. And it was exactly the same thing for me but oh, that experience! Nothing counted for me anymore: people, the eartheven the earth itself had absolutely no importance.
(The clock strikes.)
0 1961-07-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In his cosmogony, Theon accounted for the successive pralayas2 of the different universes by saying that each universe was an aspect of the Supreme manifesting itself: each universe was built upon one aspect of the Supreme, and all, one after the other, were withdrawn into the Supreme. He enumerated all the successively manifested aspects, and what an extraordinarily logical sequence it was! I have kept it some place, but I no longer know where. Nor do I remember exactly what number this universe has in the sequence, but this time it was supposed to be the universe which would not be withdrawn, which would, so to speak, follow an indefinite progression of Becoming. And this universe is to manifest Equilibrium, not a static but a progressive equilibrium.3 Equilibrium, as he explains it, is each thing exactly in its place: each vibration, each movement, each and so on down the lineeach form, each activity, each element exactly in its place in relation to the Whole.
This is quite interesting to me because Sri Aurobindo says the same thing: that nothing is bad, simply things are not in their placetheir place not only in space but in time, their place in the universe, beginning with the planets and stars, each thing exactly in its place. Then when each thing, from the most colossal to the most microscopic, is exactly in place, the Whole Will PROGRESSIVELY express the Supreme, without having to be withdrawn and emanated anew. On this also, Sri Aurobindo based the fact that this present creation, this present universe, will be able to manifest the perfection of a divine worldwhat Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind.
Equilibrium is the essential law of this creationit is what permits perfection to be realized in the manifestation.
--
What would it be like, for instance, to have a small supramental creation as a nucleus of action and influence radiating upon earth (to limit it to the earth)? Is it possible? Its easy to conceive of a superhuman nucleusa creation of supermen, that is, of men Who by virtue of evolution and transformation (in the true sense of the word) have succeeded in manifesting the supramental forces; yet since their origin is human, there is inevitably a contact; even if everything is transformed, even if their organs are transformed into centers of force, a sort of human coloration still remains. These are the beings Who, according to tradition, will discover the secret of direct, supramental creation, bypassing the process of ordinary Nature. Then through them the true supramental beings will be born, Who will necessarily have to live in a supramental world. But how would contact be made between these beings and the ordinary world? How to conceive of a transformation of nature sufficient to enable this supramental creation to take place on earth? I dont know.
Of course, we know that such a thing will require a considerable amount of time to be done, and it will probably go by stages, by degrees, with faculties appearing that at the moment we cant know or imagine, and which will change the conditions of the earththis is looking ahead a few thousand years.
--
All Who have considered the problem have always imagined some place like a Himalayan gorge, unknown to the rest of humanity, but this is no solution. No solution at all.
No, the only solution is occult power. But that. Before anything at all can be done, it already demands a certain number of individuals Who have reached a great perfection of realization. Granting this, a place is conceivable (set apart from the outside worldno actual contacts) where each thing is exactly in its place, setting an example. Each thing exactly in its place, each person exactly in his place, each movement in its place, and all in its place in an ascending, progressive movement without relapse (that is, the very opposite of what goes on in ordinary life). Naturally, this also means a sort of perfection, it means a sort of unity; it means that the different aspects of the Supreme can be manifested; and, necessarily, an exceptional beauty, a total harmony; and a power sufficient to keep the forces of Nature obedient: even if this place were encircled by destructive forces, for example, these forces would be powerless to act the protection would be sufficient.
It would all require the utmost perfection in the individuals organizing such a thing.
--
There are stories like this, you know, about people Who lived in an ideal solitude, and its not at all impossible to imagine. When one is in contact with this Power, when it is within you, you can see that such things are childs play! It even reaches the point where there is the possibility of changing certain things, of influencing vibrations and forms in the surrounding environment by contagion, so that automatically they begin to be supramentalized. All that is possible but confined to the individual scale. While if we take the example of what is happening here, where the individual remains right in the midst of all this chaos. Thats the difficulty! Doesnt this very fact make a certain perfection in realization impossible to attain? But the other case, the individual isolated in the forest, is always the same thingan example giving no proof that the rest will be able to follow; while whats happening here should already have a much broader radiating influence. At some point this has to happenit MUST happen. But the problem still remains: can it happen simultaneously with or even before the supramentalization of the single individual?
(silence)
--
This eye [hemorrhage], for instance, resulted from such a disorder, a very dark force that someone allowed to enter, not deliberately, not knowingly, but through weakness and ignorance, always mingled, of course, with desire and ego and all the rest. (Without desire and ego, such things would find no access but desire and ego are very widespread.) At any rate, that was plainly the cause and I sensed it immediately. Sometimes when it comes, it creeps up like this (Mother brings her hand to her throat), a black shadow strangling you. Yet inwardly nothing is affected at all, to such an extent that if I didnt pay attention to the purely external reaction, I wouldnt know anything had happened (its the great Play); but externally the indication is immediate: half an hour later I had this eye hemorrhage. I was struggling against a Wholly undesirable intrusion, and I knew italthough from an outer point of view, the cause was insignificant. Its not always the events we consider serious or important that produce the most harmful effectsfar from it. Sometimes its an altogether INSIGNIFICANT intrusion of falsehood, for some quite insignificant reasonwhat is commonly labeled a stupidity. This stems from the fact that the adverse forces are always lying in wait, ready to rush in at the least sign of weakness.
The incomprehension generated by doubt (the kind of doubt that always results from an egoistic movement) is very dangerous. Very dangerous. Its not even necessary to be in a psychic consciousness even for an enlightened vital consciousness, it produces no effect; but HERE, in this material swarm.
--
Note that modern astronomy is divided between the theory of endless phases of contraction-explosion-expansion, and the theory of a universe in infinite expansion starting with a 'Big Bang,' which seems quite as catastrophic, since the universe is then plunging at vertiginous speed into an increasingly cold, empty, and fatal infinity, like a bullet released from all restraints of gravity, until... until what? According to astronomers, an exact measurement of the quantity of matter in a cubic meter of the present universe (one atom for every 400 liters of space) should enable us to decide between these two theories and learn which way it will be best for us to die. If there is more than one atom per 400 liters of space, this quantity of matter will create sufficient gravitation to halt the present expansion of galaxies and induce a contraction, ending with an explosion within an infinitesimal space. If there is less than one atom per 400 liters of space, the quantity of matter and thus the gravitational effect will be insufficient to retain the galaxies within their invisible net, and everything will spin off endlesslyunless we discover, with Mother, a third position, that of a 'progressive equilibrium,' in which the quantity of matter in the universe proves in fact to be a quantity of consciousness, Whose contraction or expansion will be regulated by the laws of consciousness.
When the veil of falsehood has gone: the supramental consciousness.
0 1961-07-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is always what could almost be called a popular way of presenting things. Take the Whole Story of the Creation, of how things have come about: it can be told as an unfolding story (this is what Theon did in a book he called The Traditionhe told the Whole story in the Biblical manner, with psychological knowledge hidden in symbols and forms). There is a psychological manner of telling things and a metaphysical manner. The metaphysical, for me, is almost incomprehensible; its uninteresting (or interesting only to minds that are made that way). An almost childish, illustrative way of telling things seems more evocative to me than any metaphysical theory (but this is a personal opinion and of no great moment!). The psychological approach is more dynamic for transformation, and Sri Aurobindo usually adopted it. He doesnt tell us stories (I was the one Who told him stories! Images are very evocative for me). But if one combines the two approaches. Actually, to be philosophical, one would have to combine the three. But I have always found the metaphysical approach ineffective; it doesnt lead to realization but only gives people the IDEA that they know, when they really know nothing at all. From the standpoint of push, of a dynamic urge towards transformation, the psychological approach is obviously the most powerful. But the other [the symbolic approach] is lovelier!
In The Hour of God, theres a Whole diagram of the Manifestation made by Sri Aurobindo3: first comes this, then comes that, then comes the other, and so fortha Whole sequence. They published this in the book in all seriousness, but I must say that Sri Aurobindo did it for fun (I saw him do it). Someone had spoken to him about different religions, different philosophical methods Theosophy, Madame Blavatski, all those people (there was Theon, too). Well, each one had made his diagram. So Sri Aurobindo said, I can make a diagram, too, and mine will be much more complete! When he finished it, he laughed and said, But its only a diagram, its just for fun. They published it very solemnly, as if he had made a very serious proclamation. Oh, its a very complicated diagram!
But the trouble is that people will say: whats the need for a descent if all is involved and then evolves? Why a descent? Why should there be an intervention from a higher plane?
--
Once this had occurred, the divine Consciousness turned towards the Supreme and said (Mother laughs): Well, heres what has happened. Whats to be done? Then from the Divine came an emanation of Love (in the first emanation it wasnt Love, it was Ananda, Bliss, the Delight of being which became Suffering), and from the Supreme came Love; and Love descended into this domain of Inconscience, the result of the creation of the first emanation, Consciousness Consciousness and Light had become Inconscience and Darkness. Love descended straight from the Supreme into this Inconscience; the Supreme, that is, created a new emanation, which didnt pass through the intermediate worlds (because, according to the story, the universal Mother first created all the gods Who, when they descended, remained in contact with the Supreme and created all the intermediate worlds to counterbalance this fallits the old story of the Fall, this fall into the Inconscient. But that wasnt enough). Simultaneously with the creation of the gods, then, came this direct Descent of Love into Matter, without passing through all the intermediate worlds. Thats the story of the first Descent. But youre speaking of the descent heralded by Sri Aurobindo, the Supramental Descent, arent you?
Not only that. For example, Sri Aurobindo says that when Life appeared there was a pressure from below, from evolution, to make Life emerge from Matter, and simultaneously a descent of Life from its own plane. Then, when Mind emerged out of Life, the same thing from above happened again. Why this intervention from above each time? Why dont things emerge normally, one after another, without needing a descent?
--
Take the experience of Mind, for example: Mind, in the evolution of Nature, gradually emerging from its involution; well and this is a very concrete experience these initial mentalized forms, if we can call them that, were necessarily incomplete and imperfect, because Natures evolution is slow and hesitant and complicated. Thus these forms inevitably had an aspiration towards a sort of perfection and a truly perfect mental state, and this aspiration brought the descent of already fully conscious beings from the mental world Who united with terrestrial formsthis is a very, very concrete experience. What emerges from the Inconscient in this way is an almost impersonal possibility (yes, an impersonal possibility, and perhaps not altogether universal, since its connected with the history of the earth); but anyway its a general possibility, not personal. And the Response from above is what makes it concrete, so to speak, bringing in a sort of perfection of the state and an individual mastery of the new creation. These beings in corresponding worlds (like the gods of the overmind,4 or the beings of higher regions) came upon earth as soon as the corresponding element began to evolve out of its involution. This accelerates the action, first of all, but also makes it more perfectmore perfect, more powerful, more conscious. It gives a sort of sanction to the realization. Sri Aurobindo writes of this in SavitriSavitri lives always on earth, with the soul of the earth, to make the Whole earth progress as quickly as possible. Well, when the time comes and things on earth are ready, then the divine Mother incarnates with her full powerwhen things are ready. Then will come the perfection of the realization. A splendor of creation exceeding all logic! It brings in a fullness and a power completely beyond the petty shallow logic of human mentality.
People cant understand! To put oneself at the level of the general public may be all very well5 (personally I have never found it so, although its probably inevitable), but to hope that they will ever understand the splendor of the Thing. They have to live it first!
--
How marvelous are the depths of the sea! Everywhere the presence of the One in Whom all harmonies reside is felt!
Ever westward I advance, without weariness or hesitation. Spectacle succeeds spectacle in incredible variety; here upon a rock of lapis lazuli stretch fine and delicate seaweed like long blond or violet tresses; here great, rose-hued fortress walls, all streaked with silver; here flowers seem chiseled from enormous diamonds; here goblets, as beautiful as if carved by the most gifted sculptor, are filled with what appear to be droplets of emerald, alternately vibrant with light and shadow.
--
Now I see that these rays emanate from a recumbent oval of white light encircled by a superb rainbow, and I sense that the one Whom the light hides from my view is plunged into a profound repose. For long I remain at the outer edge of the rainbow, trying to pierce through the light and see the one Who is sleeping encircled by such splendor. Unable to discern anything, I enter the rainbow, and thence into the white and shining oval. Here I see a marvelous being: stretched on what seems to be a mass of white eiderdown, his supple body, of incomparable beauty, is garbed in a long, white robe. His head rests on his folded arm, but of that I can see only his long hair, the hue of ripened wheat, flowing over his shoulders. A great and gentle emotion sweeps through me at this magnificent spectacle, and a deep reverence as well.
Has the sleeper sensed my presence? For now he awakens and rises in all his grace and beauty. He turns towards me and his eyes meet mine, mauve and luminous eyes with a gentle, an infinitely tender expression. Wordlessly he bids me a sublime welcome and my Whole being joyously responds. Taking my hand, he leads me to the couch he has just left. I stretch out on this downy whiteness, and his harmonious visage bends over me; a sweet current of force enters Wholly into me, invigorating, revitalizing each cell.
Then, wreathed by the splendid colors of the rainbow, enveloped by lulling melodies and exquisite perfumes, beneath his gaze so powerful, so tender, I drift into a beatific repose. And during my sleep I learn many beautiful and useful things.
0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When one descends into the subconscient, a time comes when its no longer personal the Whole world is there! Then what can we do? Im not speaking of you, but what can people like us do to change it? Its a Sisyphean labor! Vibrations from the Whole world keep coming in at each instant. How can we change it?
No, you have to approach the problem from the other direction.
Evolution begins with the Inconscient, complete Inconscience; and from this Inconscient a Subconscient gradually emerges that is, a half or quarter-consciousness. There are two different things here. Consider life on earth (because the process is slightly different in the universe); earth-life begins with total Inconscience and little by little what was involved within it works out and changes this Inconscience into semi-consciousness or subconsciousness. At the same time, there is an individual working that awakens the INDIVIDUAL inconscient to an individual semiconsciousness, and here, of course, the individual has controlalthough its not actually individualized because individualization begins with consciousness. The subconscient of plants or animals, for example, isnt individualized; what we call an animals behavior doesnt arise from individualization but from the genius of the species. Consequently, the individual subconscient is something already evolved out of the general Subconscient. But when one descends to accomplish a work of transformationto bring Light into the different layers of life, for instanceone descends into a cosmic, terrestrial Subconscient, not an individual Subconscient. And the work of transformation is done within the Wholenot through individualization, but through the opposite movement, through a sort of universalization.
No, what I mean is that as we progress, we automatically become universalized.
--
Then how can we act upon itall these vibrations that keep pouring in from all over the world, from the Whole earth?
It isnt difficult the minute you become universalized you act upon the Whole.
Even Buddha said that if you have a vibration of desire, this vibration goes all around the terrestrial atmosphere. The opposite is whats impossible! Its impossible to separate yourself. You can have the idea of being separate, but you cant be separate in reality. In fact, if you are trying to eliminate the Subconscient in yourself your movement must necessarily be general; it cant be personal, you would never get anywhere.
--
In fact, we are the first possible instruments for making the world progress. For example (this is one way of putting it), the transformation of the Inconscient into the Subconscient is probably far more rapid and complete now than it was before man appeared upon earth; man is one of the first transformative elements. Animals are obviously more conscious than plants, but WILLED (and thus more rapid) progress belongs to humanity. Likewise, what one hopes (more than hopes!), what one expects is that when the new supramental race comes upon earth, the work will go much more swiftly; and man will necessarily benefit from this. And since things will be done in true order instead of in mental disorder, animals and everything else will probably benefit from it also. In other words, the Whole earth, taken as one entity, will progress more and more rapidly. The Inconscient (oh, all this comes to me in English, thats the difficulty!) is meant to go and necessarily the Subconscient will go too.
Broadly speaking, does this mean that physical Matter will become conscious?
--
Its never separate, neither from the Center (if it can be called a center!) nor from the Whole. And as soon as one is in touch with it, this problem no longer arises: its plain that it cant be otherwise!
Because when one loses his ego and finds this central being, Sri Aurobindo says that an individuality remainsit isnt a dissolutionone retains a personality.
--
Then why have those Who had realizations in the past, Who found the true Self, all said it meant the dissolution of the individual, that no personality remained?
Not all! only those Who went off into Non-existence said this.
In the Vedas, for example, its plain that the forefa thers spoken of were men Who had realized immortality upon earth. ( Who knows, they may still be alive!) Their conception of things was similar to Sri Aurobindos.
The other tradition Theon said it was the origin of both the Kabbala and the Vedasalso held the same concept of divine life and a divine world as Sri Aurobindo: that the summit of evolution would be the divinization of everything objectified, along with an unbroken progression from that moment on. (As things are now, one goes forward and then backwards, then forward and backwards again; but in this divine world, retrogression wont be necessary: there will be a continuous ascent.) This concept was held in that ancient tradition Theon spoke to me very clearly of it, and Sri Aurobindo hadnt yet written anything when I met Theon. Theon had written all kinds of thingsnot philosophy, but stories, fantastic stories! Yet this same knowledge was behind them, and when asked about the source of this knowledge he used to say that it antedated both the Kabbala and the Vedas (he was well-versed in the Rig-veda).
--
No, they have no psychic being, so that Whole side of life does not exist for them.
In all the traditions here in India (and in other countries and other religions as well), most of the time these gods behave impossibly! This is simply because they have no psychic being. The psychic being is the one thing belonging specifically to terrestrial life; it has been given as a grace to repair, to undo what had been done.
--
Except for Krishna. In 1926, I had begun a sort of overmental creation, that is, I had brought the Overmind down into matter, here on earth (miracles and all kinds of things were beginning to happen). I asked all these gods to incarnate, to identify themselves with a body (some of them absolutely refused). Well, with my very own eyes I saw Krishna, Who had always been in rapport with Sri Aurobindo, consent to come down into his body. It was on November 24th, and it was the beginning of Mother.8
Yes, in fact I wanted to ask you what this realization of 1926 was.
--
It was at that time that he decided to stop dealing with people and retire to his room. So he called everyone together for one last meeting. Before then, he used to go out on the verandah every day to meet and talk with all Who came to see him (this is the origin of the famous Talks with Sri Aurobindo9Mother is about to say something severe, then reconsidersanyway) I was living in the inner rooms and seeing no one; he was going out onto the verandah, seeing everyone, receiving people, speaking, discussing I saw him only when he came back inside.
After a while, I too began having meditations with people. I had begun a sort of overmental creation, to make each god descend into a beingthere was an extraordinary upward curve! Well, I was in contact with these beings and I told Krishna (because I was always seeing him around Sri Aurobindo), This is all very fine, but what I want now is a creation on earthyou must incarnate. He said Yes. Then I saw him I saw him with my own eyes (inner eyes, of course), join himself to Sri Aurobindo.
--
These people had always been very intimate with Sri Aurobindo, so they asked: Why, why, Why? He replied, It will be explained to you. I had no intention of explaining anything, and I left the room with him, but Datta began speaking. (She was an Englishwoman Who had left Europe with me; she stayed here until her deatha person Who received inspirations.) She said she felt Sri Aurobindo speaking through her and she explained everything: that Krishna had incarnated and that Sri Aurobindo was now going to do an intensive sadhana for the descent of the Supermind; that it meant Krishnas adherence to the Supramental Descent upon earth and that, as Sri Aurobindo would now be too occupied to deal with people, he had put me in charge and I would be doing all the work.
This was in 1926.
--
See Thoughts and Glimpses: 'What then was the commencement of the Whole matter? Existence that multiplied itself for sheer delight of being and plunged into numberless trillions of forms so that it might find itself innumerably.... And what is the end of the Whole matter? As if honey could taste itself and all its drops together and all its drops could taste each other and each the Whole honeycomb as itself, so should the end be with God and the soul of man and the universe.'
Cent. Ed. Vol. XVI, p. 384
0 1961-08-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then comes what Theon called the nervous sub-level, which lies between this subtle physical and the vital. And it acts as a protection: if it is stable, harmonious and strong, it protects youit protects you even physicallyfrom contagious diseases, for instance, and even from accidents. I experienced it when I was living at Val-de-Grce. It was the year I resolved to attain union with the psychic being and I was concentrated on this from morning to night and night to morning. Every day I spent some time in the Luxembourg Gardens. They were right near the house, but to get there I had to go all the way down Rue du Val-de-Grce and cross Boulevard Saint Michel, where there were streetcars, automobiles, buses the Whole circus. I would remain in my concentration the Whole time, and once, while crossing the boulevard, I felt a shock about this far from my body [slightly more than arms length], so spontaneously I jumped backjust enough for the streetcar to pass by. I hadnt heard anything; I was totally absorbed, and without that warning I would surely have been run over; instead, I jumped back just in time, and the streetcar sped by. I understood then that this nervous sheath was something entirely concrete, because what I had felt was not an idea of danger but a shocka material SHOCK.
So its true that as long as this envelope is strong and undamaged, you are protected. But for instance, if you are over-tired or worried or flusteredanything that brings disorder into the atmosphere seems to make holes in this envelope, and all kinds of things can enter.
--
Once when I was at Tlemcen with Theon (this happened twice, but Im not sure about the second time because I was alone), my body was in a cataleptic state and I was in conscious trance. It was a peculiar kind of catalepsy in the sense that my body could speak, though very slowly Theon had taught me how to do it. But this is because the life of the form always remains (this is what takes seven days to leave the body) and it can even be trained to make the body move the being is no longer there, but the life of the form can make the body move (in any case, utter words). However, this state is not without danger, the proof being that while I was working in trance, for some reason or other (which I no longer remember, but obviously due to some negligence on the part of Theon Who was there to watch over me), the cord I dont know what to call itwent snap! The link was cut, malevolently,5 and when it was time and I wanted to return, I could no longer re-enter my body. But I was still able to warn him: The cord is cut. Then he used his power and knowledge to help me come back but it was no joke! It was very difficult.6 And this is when I had the experience of the two different states, because the part that had gone out was now without the bodys support the link was cut. Then I knew. Of course, I was in a special state; I was doing a fully conscious work with all the vital power, and I was in control not only of my surroundings but. You see, what happens is a kind of reversal of consciousness: you begin to belong to another world; you feel this quite distinctly. Theon instantly told me to concentrate (I was finding it all interestingMo ther laughs I was making experiments and getting ready to go wandering off, but he was terribly scared that I would die on him!). He begged me to concentrate, so I concentrated on my body.
When I re-entered, it hurt terribly, terriblyan excruciating pain, like plunging into a hell.
--
We all know, of course, that the Divine Consciousness is there in the depths of the Inconscient; but even so, sleep appears to be a fall, and there are people Who fall almost completely back into the Inconscient and come out of their sleep far duller than when they entered it. But for some reason, probably due to the necessities of the Work, I have never to my knowledge had a fully unconscious sleep.
There was another thing (laughing): even as a young child, I would all of a sudden, right in the middle of an action or a sentence or anything at all, go into trance and nobody knew what it was! They would all think I had gone to sleep! But I remained conscious, with an arm raised or in the middle of a word and poof! No one there (Mother laughs). No one there outwardly, but inwardly quite an intense, interesting experience. That used to happen to me even when I was very young.
I remember once (I must have been ten or twelve years old at the time), there was a luncheon at my parents house for a dozen or so people, all decked out in their Sunday bestthey were family but all the same it was a luncheon and there was a certain protocol; in short, one had to behave properly. I was at one end of the table next to a first-cousin of mine Who later became director of the Louvre for a while (he had an artistic intelligence, a rather capable young man). So there we were, and I remember I was observing something rather interesting in his atmosphere (mind you, although the faculties were already there, I knew nothing about occult things; if someone had spoken to me of auras and all that. I knew nothing). I was observing a kind of sensation I had felt in his atmosphere and then, just as I was putting the fork into my mouth, I took off! What a scolding I got! I was told that if I didnt know how to behave, I shouldnt come to the table! (Mother goes into peals of laughter)
It was during this period that I used to go out of my body every night and do the work Ive spoken of in Prayers and Meditations (I only mentioned it in passing).8 Every night at the same hour, when the Whole house was very quiet, I would go out of my body and have all kinds of experiences. And then my body gradually became a sleepwalker (that is, the consciousness of the form became more and more conscious, while the link remained very solidly established). I got into the habit of getting up but not like an ordinary sleepwalker: I would get up, open my desk, take out a piece of paper and write poems. Yes, poems I, Who had nothing of the poet in me! I would jot things down, then very consciously put everything back into the drawer, lock everything up again very carefully and go back to bed. One night, for some reason or other, I forgot and left it open. My mother came in (in France the windows are covered with heavy curtains and in the morning my mother would come in and violently throw open the curtains, waking me up, brrm!, without any warning; but I was used to it and would already be prepared to wake upotherwise it would have been most unpleasant!). Anyway, my mother came in, calling me with unquestionable authority, and then she found the open desk and the piece of paper: Whats that?! She grabbed it. What have you been up to? I dont know what I replied, but she went to the doctor: My daughter has become a sleepwalker! You have to give her a drug.
It wasnt easy.
--
Its strange. I say strange because its due to her that I took birth in this body, that it was chosen. When she was very young she had a great aspiration. She was exactly twenty years older than 1; she was twenty when I was born and I was her third child. The first was a son Who died in Turkey when he was two months old, I thinkthey vaccinated him against smallpox and poisoned him, (laughing) god knows what it means! He died of convulsions. Next was my brother Who was born in Egypt, at Alexandria, and then me, born in Paris when she was exactly twenty years old. At that time (especially since the death of her first child) she had a kind of GREAT aspiration in her: her children had to be the best in the world. It wasnt an ambition, I dont know what it was. And what a will she had! MY mother had a formidable will, like an iron bar, utterly impervious to all outside influence. Once she had made up her mind, it was made up; even if someone had been dying before her eyes, she wouldnt have budged! And she decided: My children will be the best in the world.
One thing she did have was a sense of progress; she felt that the world was progressing and we had to be better than anything that had come before and that was sufficient.
--
Satprem remembers that a few years earlier Mother had told him about the circumstances of this incident: during her work in trance, Mother discovered the location of the 'mantra of life'the mantra that has the power to create life (and to withdraw it, as well). Theon, an incarnation of the Asura of Death, was of course quite interested and told Mother to repeat this mantra to him. Mother refused. Theon became violently angry and the link was cut (the link that connected Mother to her body). When he realized the catastrophe his anger had caused, Theon grew afraid (for he knew Who Mother was) and he then, as Mother recounts, made use of all his power to help her re-enter her body. Later, Mother gave this mantra to Sri Aurobindo... Who let it quietly sink into oblivion. For it is not through a mantra that the secret of life (or death) is to be mastered, but through knowledge of the true Powerin other words, ultimately, knowledge of the reality of Matter and the mechanism of death: it is the Whole cellular yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Mother.
Tamas: inertia, obscurity.
0 1961-08-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Youre the one Who knows!
Because this kind of creative Power coming from on high, from up, up, up on the highest heights, beyond all forms of manifestation, mon petit, its like something tremendous held behind a floodgate. And sometimes (Mother smiles) theres a temptation to open the floodgate a little.
0 1961-08-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I would like to know the effect it must have on the bodys functioning. It would be interesting to know if the functioning becomes Wholly harmonious or what? We will probably see. But the experience must last; it must last for at least one day, or even two or three then the result would be interesting to see.
Well, petit.
0 1961-08-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, it was not X Who said this, but one of his acolytes, N., Who would later throw a great confusion into X's relations with both Mother and Satprem. The hunt for tantric powers was on.
***
0 1961-09-03, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its not so much a question of the reading public as a question of language. As for the readers you know, at any level whatsoever it is possible to suddenly touch a soul, anywhere. The level doesnt matter, and fundamentally if one reaches one or two souls with a book like this, its a fine result. It opens the way to people intellectually, and those Who want to can follow along.
I dont think your book will hold any surprises for me when I have it! Sometimes I listen to Whole sections of it. Last night it was almost as if you were reading the book to menot exactly with words but I woke up and Sri Aurobindo was there andas though you had been reading somethinghe approved of it, saying, Yes, its fine like that, its all right.
(silence)
--
One Whole week to go without seeing each other. We remain very close. Very closeyou dont even need to feel it!
(Satprem makes a face)
0 1961-09-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know, but Sri Aurobindo spoke of it at the end of the book on the Vedas, in the chapter on the origin of languages. He seems to be saying that its better if one goes back to the origin of the vibrations. Ultimately, as a language grows more intellectual, it hardens and dries up. Perhaps when we had only sounds (the As and the Os; the Os especially are very flexible, the Whole gamut of Os), perhaps it was more supple.
I feel this so often now. How to put it. I always try not to talktalking bothers me. Yes, its a real nuisance. When I see someone, the first thing I do is to avoid talking. Then, when the Vibration comes, its good; there is a sort of communication, and if the person is the least bit receptive, what comes is like a its subtler than music; its a vibration bringing its own principle of harmony. But people usually get impatient after a while and, wanting something more concrete, oblige me to talk. They always insist on it. Then, being in a certain atmosphere, a certain vibration, I immediately feel something going like this (gesture of a fall to another level), and then hardening. Even when I babble (you see, the very effort of trying to be more subtle makes me babble), even my babblings (laughing) become dry by comparison. There are all sorts of things that are so much fullerfull, packed with an inner richnessand as soon as this is put into words, oh!
The night before last, around 3 in the morning, I was in a place where there were a lot of people from here (you were there), and I was trying to play some music, precisely in order to SAY something. There were three pianos there, which seemed to be interlocked into each other, so I leaned over sideways to get at one of the three and began playing on it. It was in a large hall with people seated at a distance, but you were just at my left alongside a young lady Who was a symbol figure (that is, the vibration or impression I received from her and the relationship I had with her could be applied as well to four or five persons here: it was like relating to an amalgam something that is very interesting and often happens to me). Anyway, I was leaning over one of the keyboards and trying trying to work something out, to illustrate how this would translate into that. Finally I realized that playing half-standing, half-leaning was unnecessary acrobatics, because a grand piano was right there in front, so I sat down before it. Well, the most amusing part of it was that the keys (there were two keyboards) were all bluelike the marbled paper we are making now, all blue, and with every possible marbled effect. Black keys, white keys, high keys, low keys (all of them were the same width, quite wide, like this), all seemed to be coated but it wasnt paperwith this blue. Facing the piano I said to myself, Well now, this cant be played with physical eyesit has to be played FROM ABOVE.
While I was playing, I kept telling myself, But this is what Ive tried to do with music all my lifeplay on the blue keyboard!
0 1961-09-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Whats terrible is this organizing mind. Its terrible! It has us so convinced that we cant do without it that its very difficult to resist. Indeed, it has convinced all humanity. The Whole so-called elite of humanity has been convinced that nothing worthwhile can be achieved without this mental organizing power.
But Sri Aurobindo wants us to have the same simple joy as a blossoming rose: Be simple, be simple, be simple. And when I hear it or see it, its like a rivulet of golden light, like a fragrant gardenall, all, all is open. Be simple.
--
Yes, but you are besieged by so many people Who really dont
Oh, mon petit, its disgraceful.
--
We are not here to do only a little better what the others do, we are here to do what the others CANNOT do, because they do not have even the idea that it can be done. We are here to open the way of the Future to children Who belong to the Future. Anything else is not worth the trouble and not worthy of Sri Aurobindos help.
Thats what I wrote.
0 1961-09-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have the right to 150 pages! The publisher is giving me 150 pages in his collection. Terrible. But in this Sri Aurobindo, you understand, I would like to make his Whole poetic aspect stand out, that poetry which is like the Veda, like a revelation, so a bit of space is required: it cant be squeezed into a few lines, or reduced to a skeleton.
This analogy between the ancient form of spiritual revelations and Savitri, this blossoming into poetry of his prophetic revelation is what could be called the most exceptional part of his work. And what is remarkable (I saw him do it) is that he changed Savitri: he went along changing it as his experience changed.
--
There were Whole sections he redid completely, which were like descriptions of what I had told him of my own experiences. Nolini said this. When I recently reread Savitri, some phrases were very familiar and I said to Nolini, How odd, these are almost my very words! And he replied, But this has been changed, it was written differently; it has BECOME like this. As the thing became more and more concrete for him, he changed it. The breath of revelatory prophecy is extraordinary! It has an extraordinary POWER!
What struck me is that he never wanted to write anything else. To write those articles for the Bulletin1 was really a heavy sacrifice for him. He had said he would complete certain parts of The Synthesis of Yoga,2 but when he was asked to do so, he replied, No, I dont want to go down to that mental level!
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This concentration on finding the mechanism sprang from the fact that there were disorders in the body which were vanishing and then reappearingpermanent cure seemed impossible. So I told myself, Somewhere, probably in the subconscient, something must be justifying their presence. Then, after concentrating and searching and concentrating some more, suddenly a memory rose up from the subconscient (a memory which is a kind of continued existence under a certain form), the memory of a particular set of movements and actions (not physical movements, but attitudes) that go back many years and had never attracted my attention. None of it had ever been included in the general clearing-out because, like so many other things, it all seemed to be due to normal, ongoing circumstances. But thats just where I saw (what to call it?) the hue, the taint of Falsehood. Its very subtle. These are very subtle things. But suddenly, oh! It caught hold of me and created a revolution in the Whole being. All those vibrations were cast up and transformedan extraordinary thing. It stirred up much more commotion and revolution than I had ever expected. And ah! A relief. Something was clarified, bringing a brilliant, new comprehension, and then quite interesting physical results. Before this, I was really feeling rather poorly, extremely tired, with the impression of a decline into decrepituderelatively speaking! (It was in a very superficial part of the being, but it was enough to be disagreeable.) And all of itpfft! Gone in a single stroke.
And that very day, I had this experience with the possessed personit all came together. And then afterwards, a sort of mastery over the problem and the impression of a breakthroughan opening up of the WAY to change, which is this enlargement. First, the movement of generosity (not that shriveling movement, but its exact opposite the movement of expansion), and from there you go on to universality, and from universality to Totality.
It makes a Whole set of interesting experiences.
Then there is a doctor, V., Who comes here twice a year to give a check-up to all Who take part in the physical education program and all the children. He is an extremely honest and sincere man Who believes in the mission of medical science. Each time he comes, I write something in his diary on the day of his departure (his Whole diary is full of things Ive written they usually appear in the Bulletin or somewhere). On that very same day I learned that V. was leaving, and it suddenly came to meso clearly! Falsehood in the body that sort of juxtaposition of contraries, the inversion of the Vibration (only it doesnt really invertits a curious phenomenon: the vibration remains what it is but its received inverted)this falsehood in the body is a falsehood in the CONSCIOUSNESS. The falsity of the consciousness naturally has material consequences and thats what illness is! I immediately made an experiment on my body to see if this held, if it actually works that way. And I realized that its true! When you are open and in contact with the Divine, the Vibration gives you strength, energy; and if you are quiet enough, it fills you with great joyand all of this in the cells of the body. You fall back into the ordinary consciousness and straightaway, without anything changing, the SAME thing, the SAME vibration coming from the SAME source turns into a pain, a malaise, a feeling of uncertainty, instability and decrepitude. To be sure of this, I repeated the experiment three or four times, and it was absolutely automatic, like the operation of a chemical formula: same conditions, same results.
This interested me greatly.
And then, from a purely external and practical standpoint, I said, Illnesses are the falsehoods of the body (there is no question of lie here, it is a matter of falsehood; in French we have only the one word mensonge) and each doctor (here, of course, one would have to insert a little qualification: each sincere, honest doctor Who truly wants to cure), each true doctor is a soldier in the great army of those Who fight for Truth.3
That was the sentence I wrote for my doctor.
--
But some people I dont hear at all! I see lips moving, but there is nothing, nothing, not even an ordinary thought! When people are capable of a little clear-thinking, I hear everything. But with others, its like oo-oo-oo. Just recently there was something really comical! I no longer know Who it was, but someone came to see me and when he began to talk I understood nothing! All I heard was noise. What to do? This person was asking me questions (he came here for sadhana, mind you, not for external matters; it was a serious visit), and all that came out was oo-oo-oo-oo, nothing else. So I concentrated and put myself in contact with his soul, which was the only thing I could contact. It took some time. I kept silent, and finally so did he, since he saw that I was not replying. Then suddenly it came, so clearly, like drops of water falling from above: ready-made sentences. I began to tell him all sorts of things about what his soul wanted, what he had to do in the world. It was a revelation! Ah! he said, I have been waiting to hear this all my life!
But it took some time, because first of all he had to stop talking, and then I had to concentrate.
--
I am their despair because I always tell them, It doesnt make any difference! Do it like this or do it like that, it all comes down to the same thing. They are indignant: What do you mean it all comes to the same thing! (Mother laughs Wholeheartedly)
So there we are.
--
Identification of the person in question with the spirit Who had taken possession of her.
Here is the exact text of Mother's message: Truth is supreme harmony and supreme delight. All disorder, all suffering is falsehood. Thus it can be said that illnesses are the falsehoods of the body, and consequently doctors are soldiers of the great and noble army fighting in the world for the conquest of Truth.
0 1961-10-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And this light was absolutely immobilevibrationless, totally compact and coherent. When I see Xs light, for example, there are always vibrations in it; it vibrates, vibrates, things are shifting about; out with this, not a single vibration, not one movement: a MASS that seemed eternally immobile but which was (how to put it?) attentive, listening. It was a volume with the form of the head, as if that had Wholly taken over the head. It was full, so full, yet with no feeling of tension or of anything resisting, none at all; there was only a kind of immobile eternity and COMPACT, compact, absolutely coherent, no vibrations. And it increased, increased more and more, it became heavy, but with a very particular heavinessnot a weight, the feeling of a mass.
And within all this, I no longer existed. I seemed to vanish into a kind of trance, yet I was consciousnot I: the consciousness was conscious of what Sri Aurobindo was conscious of. And he was following the reading. But I couldnt remember anything; at the time, it was impossible to observe. I can only describe it all to you now because the experience remained for at least an hour and a half afterwards; when I left here, I began to objectify it, to see what it wasaside from that, it was merely a STATE I found myself in. But in this state there was an awareness of what he was hearing, and at two or three places in your reading he seemed to be saying (I cant be exact, I can only give the impression), Not necessary. In fact, thats what made me call this passage too philosophical (although when you first asked my opinion I was in a peculiar condition, nothing was active in me). With him, it was very clear, it was almost as if there were a certain number of words about which he said, That, not necessary. That, not necessary. Not many, not often, but once in a while. Especially at the end (he was still there inside my head while you were talking), when you were saying that its necessary to explain to people; there he very clearly said, No, not necessary.
--
One sees glimpses of it. I told you Ive often seen it with X. I also saw it with another tantric Who came here (someone said to be greatly renowned in the North)this sort of very well organized mental power, a mental-physical power. But it was always vibrating or intermittent or partial, passing flashes or fluctuating formations. Here it wasnt that; it was a feeling of eternity.
Normally one would have said that my body was in trance; yet it could move, it could speaksince I did speak to you; but nevertheless, it was a peculiar feeling (which I still have somewhat), like having a head too large for my body. Its not painful or disagreeable, but Im not used to it.
--
He casts forth the seeds; and then, for those Who can gather them up, comes the slow and lengthy labor.
(silence)
--
But isnt what you call the thread going to make the Whole thing heavy?
A thread is missing. I dont know, some people can write in bits and pieces, here and there, but not me. If I dont feel that everything behind me is completed, I cant go ahead. I need to have a flow.
--
Its not necessary for the Whole book to proceed in the same way.
The most revelatory part can be in segments (you know, just as it comes). The thread is an invisible one the link of a Presenceo therwise it comes in bursts, and that has a lot of force.
--
I dont think so, mon petit! I dont think so. I cant tell you for sure because Im not the one Who heard ityou know what I mean? No memory is operating. Were you to ask me to repeat a single word of what you have written, I couldnt do ityet I listened to you.
I have a sort of vision in my head of parts of sentences, three or four words where the impression was what I told you: Not necessary. But it was a very minor thing. It was more an attitude, an attitude in the expression. But it wasnt disturbing.
0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But he was there the Whole time you were reading (and now again its the same thing, he is there). In his consciousness, all this was already past I was transported forward, the present moment was behind meand then, Ah, here is the beginning of the legend.
So there will be a legend.
--
It is not surprising, therefore, that exegetes have seen the Vedas primarily as a collection of propitiatory rites centered around sacrificial fires and obscure incantations to Nature divinities (water, fire, dawn, the moon, the sun, etc.), for bringing rain and rich harvests to the tribes, male progeny, blessings upon their journeys or protection against the thieves of the sunas though these shepherds were barbarous enough to fear that one inauspicious day their sun might no longer rise, stolen away once and for all. Only here and there, in a few of the more modern hymns, was there the apparently inadvertent intrusion of a few luminous passages that might have justifiedjust barely the respect which the Upanishads, at the beginning of recorded history, accorded to the Veda. In Indian tradition, the Upanishads had become the real Veda, the Book of Knowledge, while the Veda, product of a still stammering humanity, was a Book of Worksacclaimed by everyone, to be sure, as the venerable Authority, but no longer listened to. With Sri Aurobindo we might ask why the Upanishads, Whose depth of wisdom the Whole world has acknowledged, could claim to take inspiration from the Veda if the latter contained no more than a tapestry of primitive rites; or how it happened that humanity could pass so abruptly from these so-called stammerings to the manifold richness of the Upanishadic Age; or how we in the West were able to evolve from the simplicity of Arcadian shepherds to the wisdom of Greek philosophers. We cannot assume that there was nothing between the early savage and Plato or the Upanishads.5
***
Nor was it insignificant that fire, Agni, was the core of the Vedic mysteries: Agni, the inner flame, the soul within us (for Who can deny that the soul is fire?), the innate aspiration drawing man towards the heights; Agni, the ardent will within us that sees, always and forever, and remembers; Agni, the priest of the sacrifice, the divine worker, the envoy between earth and heaven (Rig-veda III, 3.2) he is there in the middle of his house (I.70.2). The Fathers Who have divine vision set him within as a child that is to be born (IX.83.3). He is the boy suppressed in the secret cavern (V.2.1). He is as if life and the breath of our existence, he is as if our eternal child (I.66.1). O Son of the body (III.4.2), O Fire, thou art the son of heaven by the body of the earth (III.25.1). Immortal in mortals (IV.2. 1), old and outworn he grows young again and again (II.4.5). When he is born he becomes one Who voices the godhead: when as life Who grows in the mother he has been fashioned in the mother he becomes a gallop of wind in his movement (III.29.11). O Fire, when thou art well borne by us thou becomest the supreme growth and expansion of our being, all glory and beauty are in thy desirable hue and thy perfect vision. O Vastness, thou art the plenitude that carries us to the end of our way; thou art a multitude of riches spread out on every side (II.1.12). O Fire brilliant ocean of light in which is divine vision (III.22.2), the Flame with his hundred treasures O knower of all things born(I.59).
But the divine fire is not our exclusive privilegeAgni exists not only in man: He is the child of the waters, the child of the forests, the child of things stable and the child of things that move. Even in the stone he is there (I.70.2).
--
The secret lies in matter. Because Agni is imprisoned in matter and we ourselves are imprisoned there. It is said that Agni is without head or feet, that it conceals its two extremities: above, it disappears into the great heaven of the supraconscient (which the Rishis also called the great ocean), and below, it sinks into the formless ocean of the inconscient (which they also called the rock). We are truncated. But the Rishis were men of a solid realism, a true realism resting upon the Spirit; and since the summits of mind opened out upon a lacuna of lightecstatic, to be sure, but with no hold over the worldthey set upon the downward way.6 Thus begins the quest for the lost sun, the long pilgrimage of descent into the inconscient and the merciless fight against the dark forces, the thieves of the sun, the panis and vritras, pythons and giants, hidden in the dark lair with the Whole cohort of usurpers: the dualizers, the confiners, the tearers, the COVERERS. But the divine worker, Agni, is helped by the gods, and in his quest he is led by the intuitive ray, Sarama, the heavenly hound with the subtle sense of smell Who sets Agni on the track of the stolen herds (strange, shining herds). Now and again there comes the sudden glimmer of a fugitive dawn then all grows dim. One must advance step by step, digging, digging, fighting every inch of the way against the wolves Whose savage fury increases the nearer one draws to their denAgni is a warrior. Agni grows through his difficulties, his flame burns more brilliantly with each blow from the Adversary; for, as the Rishis said, Night and Day both suckled the divine Child; they even said that Night and Day are the two sisters, Immortal, with a common lover [the sun] common they, though different their forms (I.113.2,3). These alternations of night and brightness accelerate until Day breaks at last and the herds of Dawn7 surge upward awakening someone Who was dead (I.113.8). The infinite rock of the inconscient is shattered, the seeker uncovers the Sun dwelling in the darkness (III.39.5), the divine consciousness in the heart of Matter. In the very depths of Matter, that is to say, in the body, on earth, the Rishis found themselves cast up into Light that same Light which others sought on the heights, without their bodies and without the earth, in ecstasy. And this is what the Rishis would call the Great Passage. Without abandoning the earth they found the vast dwelling place, that dwelling place of the gods, Swar, the original Sun-world that Sri Aurobindo calls the Supramental World: Human beings [the Rishis emphasize that they are indeed men] slaying the Coverer have crossed beyond both earth and heaven [matter and mind] and made the wide world their dwelling place (I.36.8). They have entered the True, the Right, the Vast, Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, the unbroken light, the fearless light, where there is no longer suffering nor falsehood nor death: it is immortality, amritam.
***
0 1961-11-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have done my best, all these years, to try to keep him at a distance. He has a powera terrible asuric power. Between you and me, I saw him like that from the start thats why I became involved with him. I never intended to marry him (his family affairs made it necessary), but when we met, I recognized him as an incarnation of the Lord of Falsehood that is his origin (what he called the Lord of Nations); and in fact, this being has directed the Whole course of world events during the last few centuries. As for Theon, he was.
It was not by choice that I met all the four Asurasit was a decision of the Supreme. The first one, Whom religions call Satan, the Asura of Consciousness, was converted and is still at work. The second [the Asura of Suffering] annulled himself in the Supreme. The third was the Lord of Death (that was Theon). And the fourth, the Master of the world, was the Lord of Falsehood; Richard was an emanation, a vibhuti,1 as they say in India, of this Asura.
Theon was the vibhuti of the Lord of Death.
--
He was a pastor at Lille, in France, for perhaps ten years; he was quite a practicing Christian, but he dropped it all as soon as he began to study occultism. He had first specialized in theological philosophy in order to pass the pastoral examinations, studying all the modem philosophy of Europe (he had a rather remarkable metaphysical brain). Then I met him in connection with Theon and the Cosmic Review, and I led him into occult knowledge. Afterwards, there were all sorts of uninteresting stories. He became a lawyer during the early period of our relationship and I learned Law along with him I could even have passed the exam! Then the divorce stories began: he divorced his wife; they had three children and he wanted to keep them, but to do so he had to be legally married, so he asked me to marry himand I said yes. I have always been totally indifferent to these things. Anyway, when I met him I knew Who he was and I decided to convert him the Whole story revolves around that.
As a matter of fact, the books he wrote (especially the first one, The Living Ether) were based on my knowledge; he put my knowledge into French and beautiful French, I must say! I would tell him my experiences and he would write them down. Later he wrote The Gods (it was incomplete, one-sided). Then he became a lawyer and entered politics (he was a first-class orator and fired his audiences with enthusiasm) and was sent to Pondicherry to help a certain candidate Who couldnt manage his election campaign single-handed. And since Richard was interested in occultism and spirituality, he took this opportunity to seek a Master, a yogi. When he arrived, instead of involving himself in politics, the first thing he did was announce, I am seeking a yogi. Someone said to him, Youre incredibly lucky! The yogi has just arrived. It was Sri Aurobindo, Who was told, Theres a Frenchman asking to see you. Sri Aurobindo wasnt particularly pleased but he found the coincidence rather interesting and received him. This was in 1910.
When Richard had finished his work, he returned to France with a poor photograph of Sri Aurobindo and a completely superficial impression of him, yet with the feeling that Sri Aurobindo KNEW (he hadnt at all understood the man that Sri Aurobindo was, he hadnt felt the presence of an Avatar, but he had sensed that he had knowledge). Moreover, I think he always held this opinion, because he used to say that Sri Aurobindo was a unique intellectual giant without many spiritual realizations! (The same type of stupidity as Romain Rollands.) Well, my relationship with Richard was on an occult plane, you see, and its difficult to touch upon. What happened was far more exciting than any novel imaginable.
But he was a man Who.
He isnt dead and hes still terribly dangerous because of whats behind him [the Lord of Falsehood].
--
Ah, no! It must all be erased. Simply put a note in your book: Paul Richard, Who met Sri Aurobindo for the first time in 1910. And you can mention that he was a theological writer or something of the sort to explain how he prompted Sri Aurobindo to write.
When he returned, he told me he would take me there as soon as he could.
--
No, its not true! This was never intended, never! The Arya was bilingual, one part in French and one in English, but it was one and the same magazine published here in Pondicherry. There was never any question of publishing anything in France; this is incorrect, entirely falsea myth. Besides, it was I Who translated the English into French, and rather poorly at that!
I have noticed that as soon as one speaks of Richard one is unwittingly led to tell lies. Thats why I am so terribly careful to avoid the subject.
--
But the Whole affair was diabolic, you know; it had turned into something fantastic.
Finally he left.
This man clearly led a rather loose life. Right after he left here he spent some time in the Himalayas and became a Sannyasi. Then he went to France and from France to England. In England he married againbigamy! I didnt care, of course (the less he showed up in my life, the better), but he was in a fix! One day I suddenly received some official letters from a lawyer telling me I had initiated divorce proceedings against Richard. it seems I had a lawyer over there! A lawyer I had never asked for, Whose name I didnt know, a lawyer I didnt even know existedmy lawyer! The trial was taking place at Nice, and I was accusing Richard of abandoning me without any means of support! (That was nothing new I had paid all the expenses from the first day we met! But anyway.) Naturally, he couldnt plead that he was a bigamist; nor could he have me accuse him of being a bigamist, because it was true! So it seemed he hadnt been paying my expenses; but then I wasnt claiming anything from him in the case, no alimonya little incoherent, all that. After a few months I was finally informed that I was divorced, which was rather convenient for me as far as the bank was concerned. I had a marriage contract stipulating that our properties were separate; since I was the one with the money (he had nothing), I wanted to be free to do with it as I pleased. But the French were impossible in such matters: the woman was considered the minor party, so even if the money was the wifes and not the husbands, she couldnt withdraw it without his authorization. I dont know if its still like that, but in those days the husb and always had to countersignan annoying situation! I got around this in Japan (the banker there found the rule stupid and told me to ignore it), but the bank here can be a pain in the neck, so it was good to get this cleared up.
He remarried two or three more times. By now (I believe) he is the father of quite a large family, with grandchildren and perhaps great-grandchildren. He lives in America. Someone once told me he was dead, but I could sense that he wasnt. Then, out of the blue, E. arrived, full of admiration, telling me she had met Richard and how stunningly he could preach to people.
--
I dont like to talk about these things, though they dont interest me. As Sri Aurobindo said, I lived my Whole life absolutely free. I watched myself living through events like watching a movie. I had an inner vision, an inner will, and my inner reason for doing things was an Order received, an Order I was conscious of; but outwardlyfantastic! Naturallyhow else could it have been?
Here in Pondicherry, those last days might have become tragic (but of course it was impossible). There was the great argument (for he was perfectly aware of Who I was): But after all, he would tell me, since you are the eternal Mother, why have you chosen Aurobindo as Avatar? Choose me! You must choose meme! It was the Asura speaking through him. I would smile and not discuss it. Thats not how its done! I would tell him (laughing). Then one day he said, Ah, so you dont want to. (gesture to the throat) Well, if you dont choose me, then. He was a strong fellow with powerful hands. I kept quite calm and said inwardly, My Lord, my Lord. I called Sri Aurobindo and I saw him come, like that (gesture enveloping Mother and immobilizing everything). Then Richards hands loosened their grip.
There were marks on my neck.
--
He wrote The Lord of Nations. And I saw him, oh! I saw this Lord of Nations. During the last war [World War II] I had some dealings with him again, but not through Richarddirectly. The being Who used to appear to Hitler was the Lord of Nations. An incredible story! And I knew when they were going to meet (because after all, hes my son!9 That was the funniest part of it); and on one occasion I substituted myself for him, became Hitlers god and advised him to attack Russia. Two days later he attacked Russia. But upon leaving the meeting I encountered the other one [the real Asura] just as he was arriving! He was furious and asked me why I had done that. Its none of your business, I said, its what had to be done. You will see, he replied, I KNOW, I know you will destroy me, but before being destroyed I will wreak just as much havoc as I can, you can be sure of that.
When I returned from my nocturnal promenades I would tell Sri Aurobindo about them.
--
Throughout the war Sri Aurobindo and I were in such a CONSTANT tension that it completely interrupted the yoga. And that is why the war started in the first placeto stop the Work. At that time there was an extraordinary descent of the Supermind; it was coming like that (massive gesture), a descent! Exactly in 39. Then the war broke out and stopped everything cold. For had we personally continued [the work of transformation] we were not sure of having enough time to finish it before the other one crushed the earth to a pulp, setting the Whole Affair back centuries. The FIRST thing to be done was stop the action of the Lord of Nations.
The Lord of Falsehood.
--
According to Mother's wishes, the tape was erased up to this point. But years passed and circumstances changed, and when Satprem found the transcription of this conversation among his papers, he deemed it worthwhile to preserve the major portion of it for its historical interest. Mother's difficulties are always the difficulties of the 'Terrestrial Work'; and this particular Asura, Who disturbed the earth in such a particular way, could hardly be passed over in silence.
See conversation of July 28, p. 279.
0 1961-11-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I returned from Japan and we began to work together, Sri Aurobindo had already brought the supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. Its strange, he said to me, its an endless work! Nothing seems to get doneeverything is done and then constantly has to be done all over again. Then I gave him my personal impression, which went back to the old days with Theon: It will be like that until we touch bottom. So instead of continuing to work in the Mind, both of us (I was the one Who went through the experience how to put it? practically, objectively; he experienced it only in his consciousness, not in the body but my body has always participated), both of us descended almost immediately (it was done in a day or two) from the Mind into the Vital, and so on quite rapidly, leaving the Mind as it was, fully in the light but not permanently transformed.
Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital, my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years old! There was a young man named Pearson, a disciple of Tagore, Who had lived with me in Japan for four years; he returned to India, and when he came to see me in Pondicherry, he was stupefied.4 What has happened to you! he exclaimed. He hardly recognized me. During that same period (it didnt last very long, only a few months), I received some old photographs from France and Sri Aurobindo saw one of me at the age of eighteen. There! he said, Thats how you are now! I wore my hair differently, but otherwise I was eighteen all over again.
This lasted for a few months. Then we descended into the Physical and all the trouble began.5 But we didnt stay in the Physical, we descended into the Subconscient and from the Subconscient to the Inconscient. That was how we worked. And it was only when I descended into the Inconscient that I found the Divine Presence there, in the midst of Darkness.
It wasnt the first time; when I was working with Theon at Tlemcen (the second time I was there), I descended into the total, unindividualized that is, general Inconscient (it was the time he wanted me to find the Mantra of Life). And there I suddenly found myself in front of something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something like that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was the immanent God in the depths of the Inconscient, Who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient to Consciousness.
But then a rather remarkable phenomenon occurred: when I looked at him, he woke up and opened his eyes, expressing the beginning of conscious, wakeful action.
--
Yes, the Rishis give an absolutely living description of what you experience and experience continuallyas soon as you descend into the Subconscient: all these battles with the beings Who conceal the Light and so on. I experienced these things continually at Tlemcen and again with Sri Aurobindo when we were doing the Workits raging quite merrily even now!
As soon as you go down there, thats what happensyou have to fight against all that is unwilling to change, all that dominates the world and does not want to change.
--
Besides, according to what Ive been told (not physically), I believe that the Rishis practiced going into trance. But I suppose they wanted to achieve what Sri Aurobindo speaks of: a PHYSICAL transformation of the physical body permitting one to LIVE this consciousness instead of the ordinary consciousness. Did they ever do it? I dont know. The Veda simply recounts what the forefa thers have done. But Who are these forefa thers?
But surely this supramental consciousness is something to be found in the body?8
0 1961-11-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And in the Whole last part, there are at least twenty pages like that, with things that need to be perfected. Its a matter of a few little detailsif I knew what to do with them, everything would fall into place.
You dont have an example? Havent you brought your text?
0 1961-11-16b, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You were scheduled for the 21st and the Italian delegate for the 23rd. I have switched it around, so on the 23rd you take the place of this lady, Whom I will now see on the 21st.
I find the book VERY BEAUTIFUL.
0 1961-12-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So to calm the body I took a pencil and wrote: My being thirsts. (to tell the truth, I wanted to write this body thirsts) for perfection, not this human perfection(I should tell you that all the things I am translating are simultaneously accompanied by a set of external circumstances OBVIOUSLY arranged in detail to illustrate the translation: a Whole set of quite unpleasant circumstances, besides, serving simultaneously as backdrop and illustration. Thats what brought on the anguish). This body thirsts for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego (it was so clear to me that everything human beings conceive of as perfection is simply the ego wanting to magnify itself for its own greater glory) not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine Perfection, but that one perfection (these repeated perfections are deliberate: its like a litany) but that one perfection which has the POWER to manifest upon earth the eternal Truth.
It was this need, this need. All the bodys cells began to vibrate with a more and more intense vibrationit was much more than a need; it was a necessity, a necessity to vibrate in unison with Truth. The cells seemed to be sensing the vibration of Truth, and so the entire body was in a state of total tensionnot tension in the ordinary sense, but it was like trying to find a note that rings true. Thats what it was: to make the cells vibration ring true to the Vibration of Truth.
--
I dont know Who comes.
Last year there was a conflict between Krishna on one side (he came, I saw him), and some kind of spirit coming from Shiva; Krishna was playing, and the two of them were constantly quarreling! One wanted it to be like this, with roseate colorations, and the other wanted it all in blues and silvers. And then suddenly, as I was playing (in fact, it was the last time I played and it had started off entirely with Krishna and was going quite well) but suddenly something came like the blow of a fist (gesture of a blow to the arm), wham! I completely lost my balancereally I almost.
0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Seen from the European angle, Sri Aurobindo represents an immense spiritual revolution, redeeming Matter and the creation, which to the Christian religion is fundamentally a fallits really unclear how what has come from God could become so bad, but anyway, better not be too logical! its a fall. The creation is a fall. And thats why they are far more easily convinced by Buddhism. I saw this particularly with Richard, Whose education was entirely in European philosophy, with Christian and positivist influences; under these two influences, when he came into contact with Theons cosmic philosophy and later Sri Aurobindos revelation, he immediately explained, in his Wherefore of the Worlds, that the world is the fruit of DesireGods desire. Yet Sri Aurobindo says (in simple terms), God created the world for the Joy of the creation, or rather, He brought forth the world from Himself for the Joy of living an objective life. This was Theons thesis too, that the world is the Divine in an objective form, but for him the origin of this objective form was the desire to be. All this is playing with words, you understand, but it turns out that in one case the world is reprehensible and in the other it is adorable! And that makes all the difference. To the Whole European mind, the Whole Christian spirit, the world is reprehensible. And when THAT is pointed out to them, they cant stand it.
So the very normal, natural reaction against this attitude is to negate the spiritual life: lets take the world as it is, brutally, materially, short and sweet (since it all comes to an end with this short life), lets do all we can to enjoy ourselves now, suffer as little as possible and not think of anything else. Having said that life is a condemned, reprehensible, anti-divine thing, this is the logical conclusion. Then what to do? We dont want to do away with life, so we do away with the Divine.
--
They cant take iteven those Who are very intelligent (and this man is very intelligent): they immediately close up.
I feel that this man himself is the obstacle and that if the book came out, it would be understoodnot everywhere, but it would be understood. Not by those shut up in Catholicism (theres nothing to do for them), but Im sure its accessible to all Who couldnt care less about that, Who dont have Christian prejudices.
But I know that if we publish it here it will have a wide public in Europe and America swallowing it down like holy bread, and it will do a magnificent work. IF it comes from here. Not because of what they think of us [the Ashram], but because of what will be in it.
--
Coming from here, of course, it will take much more time to touch the general public, but I see how things work in the universe: it will go far more surely and directly to those Who are ready to receive it. And we mustnt believe that only an elite public of especially intelligent and refined people will be touched: among very simple, open-hearted people there is a deep intelligence that understands and responds to these things far better than very cultivated people dofar betterbecause they feel, they feel the vibration of this profound Hope, this profound Joy, something corresponding to the intense need of their being. While the others begin to reason and sophisticate, which takes away half the power.
From the practical standpoint, I would much prefer the book to be printed here and for us to make the necessary effort for it to go out and touch as many people as possible. The publisher may be a handy and less troublesome channel, but hes not at all the best onefar from it. THAT I know, because I am constantly seeing your book with Sri Aurobindos perception, and I am absolutely positive that he likes it very much; he has put a lot into it and he sees that it can be an enormous help but not in the short run. There is always the sense of it needing a hundred years to have its full effect. With your publisher, on the other hand, the effects are far more violent, more external and noisy, but they fade far more quickly.
--
I am seeing this book now. I see it. But when I leave here, with that Whole throng around me and all that work to do, it will fade away. I would need to be very quiet, have nothing to do, and just write when it comes to me; because I cannot do things in a logical fashion I have never been able to, never. The experience must come suddenlya memory, an experience then I note it down, put it aside and leave it. And when another comes, the same thing. In this way there would be (smiling) no plan to the book! It would be very simple: no plan of ideas, no plan of development, nothing; simply a story.
For example, the importance of the departure2: how he was present the Whole time I was away; how he guided my entire life in Japan; how. Of course, it would be seen in the mirror of my own experience, but it would be Sri Aurobindonot me, not my reactions: him; but through my experience because thats all I can speak of.
There would be interesting things even for.
--
Here, just to give you an example: when I first began to work (not with Theon personally but with an acquaintance of his in France, a boy4 Who was a friend of my brother), well, I had a series of visions (I knew nothing about India, mind you, nothing, just as most Europeans know nothing about it: a country full of people with certain customs and religions, a confused and hazy history, where a lot of extraordinary things are said to have happened. I knew nothing.) Well, in several of these visions I saw Sri Aurobindo just as he looked physically, but glorified; that is, the same man I would see on my first visit, almost thin, with that golden-bronze hue and rather sharp profile, an unruly beard and long hair, dressed in a dhoti with one end of it thrown over his shoulder, arms and chest bare, and bare feet. At the time I thought it was vision attire! I mean I really knew nothing about India; I had never seen Indians dressed in the Indian way.
Well, I saw him. I experienced what were at once symbolic visions and spiritual FACTS: absolutely decisive spiritual experiences and facts of meeting and having a united perception of the Work to be accomplished. And in these visions I did something I had never done physically: I prostrated before him in the Hindu manner. All this without any comprehension in the little brain (I mean I really didnt know what I was doing or how I was doing itnothing at all). I did it, and at the same time the outer being was asking, What is all this?!
--
As for Theon, he was European and wore a long purple robe that wasnt at all like the one in my vision. (Im not sure, but I think he was either Polish or Russian, but more probably Russian, of Jewish descent, and that he was forced to leave his country; he never said anything about this to anyone, its only an impression.) When I saw him I recognized him as a being of great power. And he bore a certain likeness to Sri Aurobindo: Theon was about the same size (not a tall man, of medium height) and thin, slim, with quite a similar profile. But when I met Theon I saw (or rather I felt) that he was not the man I saw in my vision because he didnt have that vibration. Yet it was he Who first taught me things, and I went and worked at Tlemcen for two years in a row. But this other thing was always there in the background of the consciousness.
Then when Richard came here he met Sri Aurobindo (he was haunted by the idea of meeting the Master, the Guru, the Great Teacher). Sri Aurobindo was in hiding, seeing no one, but when Richard insisted, he met him, and Richard returned with a photograph. It was one of those early photos, with nothing in it. It was empty, the remnants of the political man, not at all resembling what I had seen I didnt recognize him. Its strange, I said to myself, thats not it (for I saw only his external appearance, there was no inner contact). But still, I was curious to meet him. At any rate, I cant say that when I saw this photograph I felt, Hes the one! Not at all. He impressed me as being a very interesting man, but no more.
--
But between these two meetings he participated in a Whole series of experiences, experiences of gradually growing awareness. This is partly noted in Prayers and Meditations (I have cut out all the personal segments). But there was one experience I didnt speak of there (that is, I didnt describe it, I put only the conclusion)the experience where I say Since the man refused I was offering participation in the universal work and the new creation and the man didnt want it, he refused, and so I now offer it to God.6
I dont know, Im putting it poorly, but this experience was concrete to the point of being physical. It happened in a Japanese country-house where we were living, near a lake. There was a Whole series of circumstances, events, all kinds of thingsa long, long story, like a novel. But one day I was alone in meditation (I have never had very profound meditations, only concentrations of consciousness Mother makes an abrupt gesture showing a sudden ingathering of the entire being); and I was seeing. You know that I had taken on the conversion of the Lord of Falsehood: I tried to do it through an emanation incarnated in a physical being [Richard]7, and the greatest effort was made during those four years in Japan. The four years were coming to an end with an absolute inner certainty that there was nothing to be done that it was impossible, impossible to do it this way. There was nothing to be done. And I was intensely concentrated, asking the Lord, Well, I made You a vow to do this, I had said, Even if its necessary to descend into hell, I will descend into hell to do it. Now tell me, what must I do?The Power was plainly there: suddenly everything in me became still; the Whole external being was completely immobilized and I had a vision of the Supreme more beautiful than that of the Gita. A vision of the Supreme.8 And this vision literally gathered me into its arms; it turned towards the West, towards India, and offered meand there at the other end I saw Sri Aurobindo. It was I felt it physically. I saw, sawmy eyes were closed but I saw (twice I have had this vision of the Supremeonce here, much later but this was the first time) ineffable. It was as if this Immensity had reduced itself to a rather gigantic Being Who lifted me up like a wisp of straw and offered me. Not a word, nothing else, only that.
Then everything vanished.
--
And these are the real milestones of the Whole Story.
I feel it will be told one day. But first of all, this (Mother touches her body) must be sufficiently changed. Then the story will take on its full value.
--
But it never passed through my head first, never, never, never! Experiences came in my childhood that I didnt understand until Sri Aurobindo told me certain things; then I said, Ah, so thats what it was! But I never had that kind of curiosity, I never cared to understand with the head, I wasnt interested. I was interested in the result, in the inner change: how my attitude towards the world changed, my position relative to the creation that interested me from my infancy; how what seemed to be quite ordinary incidents could so completely change my relationship with that Whole little world of children. And it was always the same thing: instead of feeling burdened, with a weight on your head, and just plodding on like a donkey, something would lift (gesture) and you would be on top of ityou could smile and begin to change. See that thing thats out of place? Why not set it right! Like arranging things in a drawer.
Why? How? What does it all mean? What do I care! Setting it right is whats important!
--
Yes if its not too much trouble! (Mother laughs) Spontaneously, simplyif you want to, if you feel like it. You know what I mean: a book that is TRUE, in the sense that you wont say anything not perfectly true, but accessible not only accessible to the superior man, but to the honest man Who finds that life really isnt good or pleasant and is wondering if there isnt some way to make it better.
Without without great speculations.
--
And mind you, it can be very beautiful in its simplicity, a beauty sorrowful people can feel, people Who are tired of life, people Whose heads are sick of all these arguments and dogmaspeople Who are tired of thinking too many great thoughts.
And I am the first among them! Nothing tires me more than philosophers.
0 1961-12-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is something deeper. And within this deeper thing there was: quiet, quiet, quiet, we will wait; and the impression (but vague, distant and uncertain) of some attempt being made to introduce a very good possibility into the atmosphere. I never see on the purely physical plane, you know (its always on the subtle physical, the plane of possibilities thats more real to me; the purely physical generally eludes me, but I see the subtle physical clearly), and I was seeing I dont know, it was like something higher, from above, trying to make someone enter the field of possibilities, a brain that would suddenly be touched by the book and reverse the situation. I dont know Who, I dont know what, I dont know how. Ah, you know that yellow rose I just gave you? Its fringed in pink. Well, what came was like a slender pink fringe winding through the atmosphere of this situation.
Its possibleall is possible!
--
I can see that this Whole peculiar period Ive been passing through was a tremendous progress and I didnt know it. I am not at the end yet, but now I understand what it is. And its something of capital importance.
Yes, I felt you were going through a strange period.
--
Because there comes a time when one perceives the entire universe in such a total and comprehensive way that, in truth, it is impossible to remove anything from it without disturbing everything. And going a couple of steps further, one knows for certain that things which shock us as contradictions of the Divine are simply things out of place. Each thing must be exactly in its place, and whats more, be supple enough, plastic enough, to admit into a harmonious, progressive organization all the new elements constantly being added to the manifest universe. The universe is in a perpetual movement of internal reorganization, and at the same time its growing: its becoming more and more complex, more and more complete, more and more integralindefinitely. And as the new elements manifest, the Whole reorganization must be built on a new basis, and thus there isnt a second when ALL is not in perpetual movement. And when the movement is in accord with the divine order, its harmonious, so perfectly harmonious that its almost imperceptible. Now, if you descend from this consciousness towards a more external consciousness, you begin naturally to have a very precise feeling of what helps you attain the true consciousness and what bars the way or pulls you backwards or even fights against your progress. And so the perspective changes and you are obliged to say: this is divine or a help towards the Divine; and that goes against the Divine, its the Divines enemy. But this is a pragmatic standpoint, geared to action, to movement in material lifebecause you havent yet attained the consciousness surpassing all that; because you havent reached that inner perfection where you no longer have to fight, since you have gone beyond the field or the time or the utility of struggle. But before reaching that state in your consciousness and action, there is necessarily struggle; and if there is struggle, there is choice; and to choose, you need discrimination.
(Mother remains silent)
--
I had a session like that some days agoits a work Im pursuing. (Likewise, I have constantly been with the adverse force I once told you about,3 Who keeps incarnating especially to harass meso theres also this phenomenon, amiably passing from one being to another!) Anyway, not long ago I had given an appointment to this woman and had decided not to say anythingbecause there was nothing to be done (the most beautiful things go rotten, theres nothing to do). So I remained silent, indrawn, fully in contact with the Supreme Presence, with the external personality annulled (this experience, in fact, lasting almost one hour, is what gave me the key to everything that has been happening lately). There was only the Supreme, nothing else the Supreme THERE, in that very body, mon petit, in that Whole agglomeration and in that apparently absolutely anti-divine influenceHIS Presence was there!
It was a truly stupendous experience, petty though the object is (she is insignificant, without any great substance or powera very minor incarnation; she does have certain not quite human capacities, but they are so veiled by a tiny human personality that scarcely anyone but I can see them).
And in the experience there was no difference between my physical and my inner being (actually, its that way more and more for me); even physically, externally, there was a kind of love full of adoration, and so spontaneousnot even any sense of wonder! And there was such a formidable Power in it, formidable from the standpoint of the entire earth. It lasted one hour. After an hour, the experience slowly began to fade (it had to fade for purely practical reasons). But it left me so confident of a radical changenot a total change, for it wasnt permanent but so radical that even outwardly, way down below in me, something was saying, Ah, how will the meditations with X be now? I caught Myself not thinking, not myself: someone thought like that, somewhere way down below. This pulled me out of the experience and I wondered, Thats strange, Whos thinking like that? It was one of the personalities4 (in terms of work, its the one that gives each action its proper place), someone way down below, spontaneously feeling: But thats going to change the meditations! What will they be like now? When I returned and began to look at things with the usual discernment, I told myself that perhaps there actually will be a change.
But truly, EVERYTHING was changed at that moment: something was achieved. It was the perception of Power the Power that comes from Love (what Love is to the Supreme Consciousness, which has nothing to do with what we usually mean by the word love). And it was it was simple! None of those complications resulting from thought, intellect, understandingall that was gone, all gone. A formidable Power! And it made me understand one thing, that the state I had been put in (by the Lord of Yoga, in fact) was for obtaining the particular power that comes through an identity with all material things, a power possessed by certain personsnot always yogis, certain mediums, for instance. I saw it with Madame Theon: she would will a thing to come to her instead of going to the thing herself; instead of going to get her sandals when she wanted them, she made the sandals come to her. She did this through a capacity to radiate her mattershe exercised a will over her matterher central will acted upon matter anywhere, since she WAS THERE. With her, then, I saw this power in a methodical, organized way, not as something accidental or spasmodic (as it is with mediums), but as an organization of Matter. And so I began to understand: With this comes the power to put each thing in its place! provided one is universal enough.
--
See Agenda of March 26, 1959 (Vol. I, p. 288): the Titan sent especially to attack Mother's body, and Who uses the people around her for this purpose.
One of Mother's personalities.
0 1962-01-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Theres a seat in my bathroom upstairs, and between the seat and the wall are two small tables (not tables, but small stools where a few things are kept), and a porcelain towel bar (luckily, everything has rounded corners). I found myself wedged in between the seat and the two small tables (a space about this wide!). And all that matter the material substance of the table and the objects on the table and the porcelain seatit all seemed so unreceptive! It doesnt give way like it should for things to be comfortable; but it wasnt that my body was uncomfortable there was no body! The Whole set-up was bizarre, everything was in a bizarre and absurd situation which I couldnt really understand, couldnt make out: Whats this big lump doing here, I seemed to be wondering, taking up so much room, getting in the way?
My elbow had ended up leaning on a little plastic tray I have there, where I keep pencils, ball-point pens, note pads and so forth. The body was leaning on this tray, evidently trying to get up, and the Whole thing started cracking noisily under the weight. And in a diffuse but very clear consciousness I was saying to myself, But why? Whats all this ridiculous noise? And whats this heavy thing doing? What disorder. There shouldnt be such disorder. And it went on crack-crack-cracking. Then suddenly normal consciousness returnedto be exact, what returned was the normal RELATIONSHIP consciousness has with thingsand I said, Well, really! What a ridiculous situation! What is this elbow doing on that tray? It should realize its breaking it! And when things were all completely back to normal I told my body, What are you doing, you idiot! Come on, pick yourself up, get moving! Immediately, docile as a little child, it extricated itself, turned around, and stood up straightquite straight. I had scratched my knee, scratched my elbow, and taken three knocks on the head. Luckily there were no sharp edgesit was all hard enough, but no sharp edges. Anyway, in the end I was all right, no damage done.
No damage at all, but it was a bizarre sensation. So I tried to understand how it could have happened, how I could have so lost my sense of relation to things. For a long time my body had been telling me, Ive got to lie down, Ive got to lie down. And I would very sternly reply, You dont have time! (Laughing) So then this happened. Had I obeyed it and laid down, there would obviously have been no problem. But I was in my experience, going on with my experience, and at the same time I was getting ready to come downstairs. So I told my body, Its all right, its all right, youll lie down later. But it had its own way of lying down! (Laughing) It just stretched out right where it was. Actually it wasnt even stretched outit was all askew.
--
And so I looked. Is it something particular to this body? I wondered. To everyone Who has lived closely with it, my body gives the impression of two things: a very concentrated, very stubborn will, and such endurance! Sri Aurobindo used to tell me he had never dreamed a body could have such endurance. And thats probably why. But I dont want to curtail this ability in any way, because it is a CELLULAR will, and a cellular endurance toowhich is quite intriguing. Its not a central will and central endurance (thats something else altogether)its cellular. Thats why Sri Aurobindo used to tell me this body had been specially prepared and chosen for the Workbecause of its capacity for obstinate endurance and will. But thats no reason to exercise this ability uselessly! So I am making sure it relaxes now; I tell it constantly, Now, now! Just let go! Relax, have some fun, wheres the harm in it? I have to tell it to be quiet, very quiet. And its very surprised to hear that: Ah! Can I live that way? I dont have to hurry? I can live that way?
So thats why I am resting. Am I better or not? Things are always the same. Were I to start doing what I was doing before, which I KNEW all along was absolutely unreasonable. Its not that I didnt know it; I did know and I wasnt happy about it, because I knew I was doing something I shouldnt. I have no intention of starting again, but if I had said, I am withdrawing for good, it would have been. If you knew how MANY things have gone slack [in the Ashram]! And how many people I am telling off: Well, you wouldnt have done that a week ago! Oh, thats an experience in itselfto see what peoples so-called faithfulness depends on.
--
That must be it, because Ive fainted fairly often in my life. Even when I was young, I would remain conscious, and there was a Whole period when I used to go out of my body, which I would always immediately see in some ridiculous position (just where it had no business being, of course!). So I would rush back into it and say, Come on! Whats wrong with you! Then it would shake itself and get moving again, like a donkeyyou give it a good whack, and it gets back to work.
This need for relaxation was never psychological with me. And I have seen that the habit people have of slackening has the same origin: its not necessarily negligence or vital weakness, the body simply gets winded. It bears up under the tension of vital energy, but eventually it gets winded, tired out, and needs rest.
--
For the first seven years he was doing the work, not me. He was the one Who saw people; I looked after his personal affairs, his housekeeping, his food, his clothes and so forth. I kept myself quietly busy with that, doing nothing else, not seeing people, simply looking after his material lifelike a child at play. It was seven years of integral peace.
Later, when he withdrew and put me in front, there was naturally a bit more activity, as well as the semblance of responsibility but it was only a semblance. What security! A sense of total, total security for thirty years. Not once. There was just a single scratch, so to speak, when he had that accident and broke his leg. There was a formation at work (an adverse force) and he wasnt taking sufficient precautions for himself because it was directed against both of us, and more especially against me (it had tried once or twice to fracture my skull, things like that). Well, he was so intent on keeping it from seriously touching my body that it managed to sneak in and break his leg. That was a shock. But he straightened everything out again almost immediatelyit all fell back into place and went on like that till the end.
--
Yes, at one point I wondered (I dont remember when, a few days ago): How could people have lived here, so near (but the same thing is still happening), how could human beings on earth Who had an aspiration, Who had their consciousness turned towards those things, have lived that possibility, have HAD that possibility at their fingertips, without being able to take advantage of it! How could something so wonderful and unique have taken place here, and yet people had such a small and childish and superficial image of it!
Truly, I wondered, Has the time really come? Is it possible? Or will it once again be postponed?
--
Yesterday evening I read something in the book9. Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone Who said, How lucky people are Who live near the Mother. You dont know what youre talking about! he replies. To live in the Mothers physical presence is one of the most difficult things. Do you remember this passage? I didnt know he had written that. Well, well I thought. He writes, It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous.10 Indeed, thats what tires me out. Thats what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm.
(silence)
--
At that time, my impression (an impression which remained rather long, almost the Whole day) was of an extreme relativityno, not exactly that, but an impression that the relationship between this world and the other completely changes the criterion by which things are to be evaluated or judged.
Yes!
--
For Sri Aurobindo and Mother, the "vital" represents the regions or centers of consciousness below the mind, between the throat and the sex center, i.e. the Whole region of emotions, feelings, passions, etc., which constitute the various expressions of Life-Energy.
Up to March 1962, Mother came out every morning on the first floor balcony. The disciples were assembled on the street below.
--
Here is the text of Sri Aurobindo's letter: "There is a confusion here. The Mother's grace is one thing, the call to change another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those Who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact: that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work."
Centenary Edition, Vol. XXV, p. 297
0 1962-01-12 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive said something on the subject somewhere. Do you remember that gentleman from Madras Who had asked a question?1 There was an indication there.
Because I followed the thread, I put myself back in contact with the experience of the supramental ship, and I noticed that it had a DECISIVE effect on my position: the required conditions were established quite clearly, precisely, and definitively by that experience. In that respect, it was interesting.
--
As for the physical, its an old and well-known storyascetics have always rejected it; but they also reject the vital. And theyre all like that here, even X may have changed somewhat by now, but at the beginning he was no different either. Only things classically recognized as holy or admitted by religious tradition were accepted the sanctity of marriage, for example, and things like that. But a free life? Not a chance! It was Wholly incompatible with religious life.
Well, all that has been completely swept away, once and for all.
--
And, over and above this, for the realization to be total, there are two other conditions, which arent easy either. Intellectually, theyre not too difficult; in fact, for someone Who has practiced yoga, followed a discipline (I am not speaking here of just anyone), theyre relatively easy. Psychologically too, given this equality, theres no great difficulty. But as soon as you come to the material plane the physical plane and then to the body, it isnt easy. These two conditions are first, the power to expand, to widen almost indefinitely, enabling you to widen to the dimensions of the supramental consciousness which is total. The supramental consciousness is the consciousness of the Supreme in his totality. By totality, I mean the Supreme in his aspect of Manifestation. Naturally, from a higher point of view, from the viewpoint of the essence the essence of that which in Manifestation becomes the Supermindwhats necessary is a capacity for total identification with the Supreme, not only in his aspect of Manifestation, but in his static or nirvanic aspect, outside of the Manifestation: Nonbeing. But in addition, one must be capable of identifying with the Supreme in the Becoming. And that implies both these things: an expansion that is nothing less than indefinite, and that should simultaneously be a total plasticity enabling one to follow the Supreme in his Becoming. You dont merely have to be as vast as the universe at one point in time, but indefinitely in the Becoming. These are the two conditions. They must be potentially present.
Down to the vital, we are still in the realm of things that are more than feasible they are done. But on the material level it results in my misadventures of the other day.2
--
The question, of course, is the supramentalization of MATTER the consciousness, thats nothing at all. Most people Who have had that experience had it on the mental level, which is relatively easy. Its very easy: abolition of limits set by the ego, indefinite expansion with a movement following the rhythm of the Becoming. Mentally, its all very easy. Vitally. A few months after I withdrew to my room, I had the experience in the vitalwonderful, magnificent! Of course to have the experience there, the mind must have undergone a change, one must be in complete communion; without exception, any individual vital being that hasnt been prepared by what might be called a sufficient mental foundation would be panic-stricken. All those poor people Who get scared at the least little experience had better not dabble with thistheyd panic! But as it happensthrough divine grace, you might saymy vital, the vital being of this present incarnation, was born free and victorious. It has never been afraid of anything in the vital world; the most fantastic experiences were practically childs play. But when I had that experience, it was so interesting that for a few weeks I was tempted to stay in it; it was. I once told you a little about that experience (it was quite a while ago, at least two years).5 I told you that even during the day I seemed to be sitting on top of the Earth that was this realization in the vital world. And what fantastic nights it gave me! Nights I have never been able to describe to anyone and never mentioned but I would look forward to the night as a marvelous adventure.
I voluntarily renounced all that in order to go further. And when I did it, I understood what people here in India mean when they say: he surrendered his experience. I had never really understood what that meant. When I did it, I understood. No, I said, I dont want to stop there; I am giving it all to You, that I may go on to the end. Then I understood what it meant.
--
It was taking place in the subtle physical. The people Who had patches on their bodies and had to be sent back were always the ones Who lacked the plasticity those two movements required. But the main thing was the movement of expansion; the progressive movement, the movement of following the Becoming, seemed to be a subsequent preoccupation for those Who had landed. The preparation on the boat concerned that capacity for expansion.
Another thing I didnt mention to you when I related the experience was that the ship had no engine. Everything was set in motion through will powerpeople, things (even the clothes people wore were a result of their will). And this gave all things and every persons shape a great suppleness, because there was an awareness of this willwhich is not a mental will but a will of the Self, what could be called a spiritual will or a soul-will (to give the word soul that particular meaning). I have that experience right here when theres an absolute spontaneity in action, I mean when the action for instance, an utterance or a movementis not determined by the mind, and not even (not to mention thought or intellect), not even by the mind that usually sets us in motion. Generally, when we do something, we can perceive in ourselves a will to do it; when you watch yourself, you see this: there is always (it can happen in a flash) the will to do. When you are conscious and watch yourself doing something, you see in yourself the will to do itthis is where the mind intervenes, its normal intervention, the established order in which things happen. But the supramental action is decided by a leap over the mind. The action is direct, with no need to go through the mind. Something enters directly into contact with the vital centers and activates them without going through the mindyet in full consciousness. The consciousness doesnt function in the usual sequence, it functions from the center of spiritual will straight to matter.
--
This is an extremely delicate functioning, probably because were not used to it the slightest movement, the slightest mental vibration disrupts everything. But as long as it lasts, its perfectly pure. And in a supramentalized life this has to be the CONSTANT state. Mentalized will should no longer intervene; because you may well have a spiritual will, your life may be the constant expression of spiritual will (its what happens to all Who feel themselves guided by the Divine within), but it still comes through a mental transcription. Well, as long as its that way, its not the supramental life. The supramental life NO LONGER goes through the mind the mind is an immobile zone of transmission. The least little twitch is enough to upset everything.
(silence)
--
Then that suppleness. It means a capacity for decrystallizing oneself; the Whole span of life given over to self-individualization is a period of conscious, willed crystallization, which then has to be undone. To become a conscious, individualized being there has to be a constant, constant, willed crystallization, in everything; and afterwards, again constantly, the opposite movement has to be madewith an even greater will. But at the same time, the consciousness must not lose the benefit of what has been acquired through individualization.
It is difficult, I must say.
--
I knew the Whole occult procedure in detail, but I would never have been able to make that being more material, even if I had triedvisible, yes, but not permanent and progressive.
And mind you (this is my personal case), I dont think I have wasted any time. Because you might say that had I known forty years ago what I know nowat the age of forty instead of eightywell, there would have been the sense of a lot more time to work with. But I havent been wasting time. I havent wasted any time. All that time was necessary to get me where I am today.
--
An American, a friend of President Kennedy, Who had made an analogy between tracking down a deer in the forest and tracking down the Supermind:
"How can the Supermind be detected, in the way a huntsman would detect a deer in the forest? By which signs can it be recognized?"
0 1962-01-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You spoke last time of putting a body on a vital being. Is that being still alive? Who was it?
I have spoken of this before.
--
But that vital being Who was given a bodydid it live on earth for any length of time?
No, never.
--
He stopped at the subtle physicalhe refused to go any farther. It was Satan, the Asura1 of Light Who, in cutting himself off from the Supreme, fell into Unconsciousness and Darkness (Ive told the story many times). But anyway, when I was with Thon, I summoned that being and asked him if he wanted to enter into contact with the earth. Its worth mentioning that Thon himself was an incarnation of the Lord of Death Ive had good company in my life! And the other one [Richard] was an incarnation of the Lord of Falsehood but it was only partial. With Thon too it was partial. But with Satan it was the central being; of course, he had millions of emanations in the world, but this was the central being in person. The others lets keep that for another time.
He agreed to take on a body. Theon wanted to keep him there: Dont let him go, he told me. I didnt answer. This being told me he didnt want to be more material than that, it was sufficientyou could feel him move the way you feel a draft, it was that concrete.
--
And EXACTLY five years later, it happened. Later I met people coming from China Who told me it had all been the work of a secret society. They told me about it because that society used a certain sign, and instinctively, unknowingly, I had made that sign while one of them was talking to me (Mother puts one fist on top of the other). And the person said, Ah, so youre one of us! I didnt reply. Then he told me everything.
But its really interesting because the exact date was given. The revolution will take place in exactly five years, he told me. He knew it before he left. And that, he continued, will be the beginning, the first terrestrial movement heralding the transformation of. (Theon didnt use the word supramental; he used to talk about the new world on earth.)2
--
I had forgotten the Whole story, because I now live constantly in the Becoming. But it came back to me.
And all the disbelief in the world cant contradict that piece of evidence.
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Especially for those Who think theyre so superior.
But it really does correspond to something very deep.
--
It came after the vision of the great divine Becoming.2 Since this world is progressive, I was wondering, since it is increasingly becoming the Divine, wont there always be this deeply painful sense of the nondivine, of the state that, compared with the one to come, is not divine? Wont there always be what we call adverse forces, in other words, things that dont harmoniously follow the movement? Then came the answer, the vision of That: No, the moment of this very Possibility is drawing near, the moment for the manifestation of the essence of perfect Love, which can transform this unconsciousness, this ignorance and this ill will that goes with it into a luminous and joyous progression, Wholly progressive, Wholly comprehensive, thirsting for perfection.
It was very concrete.
--
Dont try to be among the pure. Accept to be with those Who are in darkness and, in total love, offer it all.
(silence)
--
Your practice of psycho-analysis was a mistake. It has, for the time at least, made the work of purification more complicated, not easier. The psycho-analysis of Freud is the last thing that one should associate with yoga. It takes up a certain part, the darkest, the most perilous, the unhealthiest part of the nature, the lower vital subconscious layer, isolates some of its most morbid phenomena and attributes to it and them an action out of all proportion to its true role in the nature. Modern psychology is an infant science, at once rash, fumbling and crude. As in all infant sciences, the universal habit of the human mindto take a partial or local truth, generalise it unduly and try to explain a Whole field of Nature in its narrow termsruns riot here. Moreover, the exaggeration of the importance of suppressed sexual complexes is a dangerous falsehood and it can have a nasty influence and tend to make the mind and vital more and not less fundamentally impure than before.
It is true that the subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature and has in it the secret of the unseen dynamisms which explain his surface activities. But the lower vital subconscious which is all that this psycho-analysis of Freud seems to know, and even of that it knows only a few ill-lit corners,is no more than a restricted and very inferior portion of the subliminal Whole. The subliminal self stands behind and supports the Whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges. If one wishes to purify and transform the nature, it is the power of these higher ranges to which one must open and raise to them and change by them both the subliminal and the surface being. Even this should be done with care, not prematurely or rashly, following a higher guidance, keeping always the right attitude; for otherwise the force that is drawn down may be too strong for an obscure and weak frame of nature. But to begin by opening up the lower subconscious, risking to raise up all that is foul or obscure in it, is to go out of ones way to invite trouble. First, one should make the higher mind and vital strong and firm and full of light and peace from above; afterwards one can open up or even dive into the subconscious with more safety and some chance of a rapid and successful change.
The system of getting rid of things by anubhava [experience] can also be a dangerous one; for on this way one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at freedom. This method has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vicra [intellectual reflection] or by the process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its place; when that happens in excess, the sadhak has sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind and will behind and then return to the spiritual life with the obstacle eliminated or else ready for elimination. But this method of purposive indulgence is always dangerous, though sometimes inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a very strong will in the being towards realisation; for then indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction, vairagya, and the will towards perfection can be carried down into the recalcitrant part of the nature.
The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. It is this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it, indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of divine grace can liberate them.Some do this out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the Whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.
***
I find it difficult to take these psycho-analysts at all seriously when they try to scrutinise spiritual experience by the flicker of their torch-lights,yet perhaps one ought to, for half-knowledge is a powerful thing and can be a great obstacle to the coming in front of the true Truth. This new psychology looks to me very much like children learning some summary and not very adequate alphabet, exulting in putting their a-b-c-d of the subconscient and the mysterious underground super-ego together and imagining that their first book of obscure beginnings (c-a-t cat, t-r-e-e tree) is the very heart of the real knowledge. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above and not below, upari budhna esam. The superconscient, not the subconscient, is the true foundation of things. The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light above. The self-chosen field of these psychologists is besides poor, dark and limited; you must know the Whole before you can know the part and the highest before you can truly understand the lowest. That is the promise of the greater psychology awaiting its hour before which these poor gropings will disappear and come to nothing.4
Questioned about the meaning of these words, Mother said, "The state I was in was like a memory."
--
When Satprem published extracts from this conversation in the Ashram Bulletin of April 1962, Mother had this passage modified (over his protests). Instead of "Do not try to be virtuous," she put "Do not try to seem virtuous"; and she added: "There's a drawback here. People never understand anything, or rather they understand everything in their own way. They would take this sentence as an encouragement to get into mischief, to misbehave, to entertain wrong feelings, and then proclaim, 'We are the Lord's favorites!' ... There was something like it in one of Sri Aurobindo's letters, you remembera letter to people Who wanted to bring all the impurities in themselves out to the surface; he told them that was definitely not the way!" (See Sri Aurobindo's two letters on psychoanalysis in the Addendum)
Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., XXIV. 1605 ff.
0 1962-01-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And once the world has become like that, has become the vital world in all its darkness, and they, from this vital world, have created Matter, the supreme Mother sees (laughing) the result of her first four emanations and She turns towards the Supreme in a great entreaty: Now that this world is in such a dreadful state, it has to be saved! We cant just leave it this way, can we? It has to be saved, the divine consciousness must be given back to it. What to do? And the Supreme says, Thrust yourself into a new emanation, an emanation of the ESSENCE of Love, down into the most material Matter. That meant plunging into the earth (the earth had become a symbol and a representation of the Whole drama). Plunge into Matter. So She plunged into Matter, and that became the primordial source of the Divine within material substance. And from there (as is so well described in Savitri), She begins to act as a leaven in Matter, raising it up from within.
And as She plunged into the earth, a second series of emanations was sent forth the godsto inhabit the intermediary zones between Sachchidananda and the earth. And these gods (laughing) well, great care was taken to make them perfect, so they wouldnt give any trouble! But they are a bit a bit too perfect, arent they? Yes, a bit too perfect: they never make mistakes, they always do exactly as theyre told. In short, rather lacking in initiative. They do have some, but.
--
It was written in English and I am the one Who translated it into Frenchinto horrible French, perfectly ghastly, because I put in all the new words Theon had dreamed up. He had made a detailed description of all the faculties latent in man, and it was remarkable but with such barbarous words! You can make up new words in English and get away with it, but in French its utterly ridiculous. And there I was, very conscientiously putting them all in! Yet in terms of experience, it was splendid. It really was an experienceit came from Madame Theons experiences in exteriorization. She had learned what Theon also taught me, to speak while youre in the seventh heaven (the body goes on speaking, rather slowly, in a rather low voice, but it works quite well). She would speak and a friend of hers, another English woman Who was their secretary, would note it all down as she went along (I think she knew shorthand). And afterwards it was made into stories, told as stories. It was all shown to Sri Aurobindo and it greatly interested him. He even adopted some of the words into his own terminology.
The divisions and subdivisions of the being were described down to the slightest detail and with perfect precision. I went through the experience again on my own, without any preconceived ideas, just like that: leaving one body after the other, one body after the other, and so on twelve times. And my experienceapart from certain quite negligible differences, doubtless due to differences in the receiving brainwas exactly the same.
--
I did try once in Francewith Hohlenberg, that painter Who came here during the war [World War I] and then had to go back.2
He came to France and asked me. He absolutely insisted. He had read all Theons stuff and was well up on everything and very anxious to try. So I taught him how to do it; and whats more, I was there, he did it in my presence. And, mon petit, the moment he went out of his body, he was thrown into a panic! The man was no cowardhe was very courageous but it absolutely terrified him! Sheer panic. So I said no, no, no.
--
Considering it to be of no interest, Satprem unfortunately did not keep a record of his answer. The P. in question died insane, in a so-called "Japanese hospital," and one night (this is most likely the story he was telling Mother here) Satprem found him being held prisoner in a kind of hell. His body was covered with wounds which Satprem treated with balm. He then told P., "But go on, say Mother's mantra!" And the moment Satprem began to recite the mantra, the Whole place explodedblown to smithereens. An instantaneous deliverance. A few months later (or it may have been a few years), P. came to see Satprem at night with a bouquet of flowers and a smile, as if to announce that he was taking on a new body.
***
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I mean, if they themselves discover the experiences they had in their past life, then its part of a Whole inner, psychic awakening, and very useful. But if some guru or other comes along and tells you, Here, this was your karma. I dont think its useful, to put it mildly!
If you discover the line of a former life on your own, thats different; its part of an inner, psychic awakening, and its very good. But I dont think its helpful when someone sees something and comes and tells you, You know, you have been this, you have done that. I feel it makes things worse instead of betterit puts you back in touch with things you were in the process of eliminating.
--
But Sujata, for example, was completely, COMPLETELY free of the Whole (what shall I say?) what could be called the unhappy aspect of her karmacompletely free. For I know the people around me and what they carry with them very well, and there was nothingjust one thing remained, the one part that was rather constructive, so I had left that totally intact. And when the events of her past life were revealed to her, I took the greatest care to destroy the revelation as it was being given. And I did it ruthlessly. You see, it was like dumping a load of mud on someone completely unsullied, and I didnt let it happen (I couldnt stop what entered through her physical brain, but inwardly I utterly annihilated it). The only thing I left untouched was the constructive part of the bond that had existed between you two, and so when she met you, she. Thats all I left, because it was good, pure, lovelyit was good. But all the rest. And you saw how strongly I protested when I was told she had committed suicide. No, no, no! I said; even if somebody with perfect knowledge were to tell me so, Id still say NO.
She is untainted by all thatpure and I wont stand for someone pure to be soiled. She was so much my child that after her death everything was carefully cleansed, arranged, put back in place, organized, purified. So she returned unblemished and pure, and I dont want her soiled.
--
Myself, I have learned a lot of rules I didnt know before (thank God!)the divine Grace saved me from that Whole hodgepodge of rules about how this happens and how that cant happen and how that must happen and how. Oh, good Lord! I saw things very simply, without a single rule in my brain, and so I did them just as simply, with no rules in my headit worked very, very well, I didnt run into any trouble. Things worked out quite naturally and simply. And if I was told, That cant beWell, sorry, I would say, but its already done.
That cant be. Sometimes it can!
--
In the lower mind there was a Whole world of difficulties I was unaware of. In the vital I knew, because Id had to do battle therewhich was fine with me! Just imagine, this time I have been given a warrior as my vital being. A magnificent warrior, neither male nor female, and as tall as this room1he is splendid. I was so happy when I first saw him. Well, I thought, thats worth my while!
Yes, there are battles galore there!
--
Its he Who made me remember; I have put you in his care.
Im glad. I can see that my consciousness is steadier. I feel clearly that something is helping me to be conscious.2 Where I go isnt so interesting, but that will change, I expect.
--
71A thought is an arrow shot at the truth; it can hit a point, but not cover the Whole target. But the archer is too well satisfied with his success to ask anything farther.
But thats obvious! So obvious (to us).
Yes, but how do you cover the Whole target?
Stop being an archer!
The image is lovely. Its perfect for people Who imagine they have found Truth. Its a good thing to tell those Who think they have found the truth simply because theyve managed to touch one point.
Yet how many times have we said that thats not enough!
One might ask this: the day one is able to take in the Whole target, in other words to know all viewpoints and the usefulness of each thing, then, seeing that everything is useful and has its place, how can one act? Doesnt action require one to be somehow exclusive or combative?
Well, so long as there are conflicting thoughts.
Did you ever hear the story of the philosopher Who lived in the South of France? I dont recall his name, a very well-known man.
He was a professor at Montpellier University and lived nearby. And there were several roads leading to his house. This man would leave the university and come to the crossing where all those roads branched out, all eventually leading to his house, one this way, one that way, one from this side. So he himself used to explain how every day he would stop there at the crossroads and deliberate, Which one shall I take? Each had its advantages and disadvantages. So all this would go through his head, the advantages and disadvantages and this and that, and he would waste half an hour choosing which road to take home!
--
This analogy is very apt down here on this plane, but for the higher realms it doesnt applyup there its just the opposite! As long as you remain the archer, touching one point, thats how it is; all intelligence below is like that, seeing all sorts of possibilities, so it cant make a choice and act. To see the Whole target, the all-inclusive Truth, you must cross to the other side. And when you do, what you see is not the sum of countless truths, an innumerable quantity of truths added together and viewed one after another, making it impossible to grasp the Whole at a glance; when you go above, its the Whole you see first, AT A GLANCE, in its entirety, without division. So there is no longer any choice to be made; its a vision: THAT is to be done. The choice is no longer between this and that, it doesnt work that way any more. Things are no longer seen in succession, one after another; there is rather a simultaneous vision of a Whole that exists as a unit. The choice is simply a vision.
As long as youre not in that state, you cant see the Whole. The Whole cant be seen successively, by adding one truth to another; this is precisely what the mind does, and why it is incapable of seeing the Whole. It cant do it. The mind will always see things in succession, by addition, but thats not IT, something will always elude you the very sense of truth will elude you.
Only when you have a simultaneous, global perception of the Whole as a unit can you see truth in its entirety.
Then, action is no longer a choice subject to error, correction, discussion, but the clear vision of what must be done. And this vision is infallible.
--
For some time now I have been running into difficulties with my morning japa. Its complex. I wont go into details, but certain things seemed to be trying to interfere, either preventing me from going on to the end, or plunging me into a kind of trance that brought everything to a halt. So I began wondering what it was and why. A very, very long curve was involved, but the result of my observations is the following. (All this is purely from the bodys standpoint; I mean it doesnt concern the conscious, living, independent being that would remain the same even without the bodyto be exact, the being Whose life, consciousness, freedom and action do not depend on the body. I am speaking here of that which needs the body for its manifestation; that alone was in question.)
There has been a kind of perception of a variety of bodily activities, a Whole series of them, having to do exclusively (or so it seems) with the maintenance of the body. Some are on the borderlinesleep, for instance: one portion of it is necessary for good maintenance of the body, and another portion puts it in contact with other parts and activities of the being; but one portion of sleep is exclusively for maintaining the bodys balance. Then there is food, keeping clean, a Whole range of things. And according to Sri Aurobindo, spiritual life shouldnt suppress those things; whatever is indispensable for the bodys well-being must be kept up. For ordinary people, all other bodily activities are used for personal pleasure and benefit. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has given his body to serve the Divine, so that the Divine may use it for His work and perhaps, as Sri Aurobindo said, for His joyalthough given the present state of Matter and the body, that seems to me unlikely or at best very intermittent and partial, because this body is much more a field of misery than a field of joy. (None of this is based on speculation, but on personal experience I am relating my personal experience.) But with work, its different: when the body is at work, its in full swing. Thats its joy, its needto exist only to serve Him. To exist only to serve. And of course, to reduce maintenance to a bare minimum while trying to find a way for the Divine to participate in the very restricted, limited and meager possibilities of joy this maintenance may give. To associate the Divine with all those movements and things, like keeping clean, sleeping (although sleep is different, its already a lot more interesting); but especially with personal hygiene, eating and other absolutely indispensable things, the attempt is to associate them with the Divine Presence so that they may be as much an expression of divine joy as possible. (This is realized to a certain extent.)
Now where does japa fit into all this?
--
In the course of my observation, I also saw the position of X and people like him, Who practically spend their lives doing japa, plus meditation, puja,4 ceremonies (I am talking only about sincere people, not fakers). Well, thats their way of working for the world, of serving the Divine, and it seems the best way to themperhaps even the only way but its a question of mental belief. In any case, its obvious that even a bit of not exactly puja, but some sort of ceremony that you set yourself to dohabitual gestures symbolizing and expressing a particular inner statecan also be a help and a way of offering yourself and relating to the Divine and thus serving the Divine. I feel its important looked at in this waynot from the traditional viewpoint, I cant stand that traditional viewpoint; I understand it, but it seems to me like putting a brake on true self-giving to the Divine. I am speaking of SELF-IMPOSED japa and rules (or, if someone gives you the japa, rules you accept with all your heart and adhere to). These self-imposed rules should be followed as a gesture of love, as a way of saying to the Divine, I love You. Do you see what I mean? Like arranging flowers in a certain way, burning incense, dozens of little things like that, made beautiful because of what is put into themit is a form of self-giving.
Now, I think that doing japa with the will and the idea of getting something out of it spoils it a little. You spoil it. I dont much like it when somebody says, Do this and you will get that. Its trueits true, but its a bit like baiting a fish. I dont much like it.
0 1962-02-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But this would only be suitable for those Who have stopped thinking.
Is it a problem for action here in matter?
--
Because a day or two ago (I dont remember exactly, it was rather fleeting but very interesting), I went through such a moment while walking in my room (it lasted while I was out on the balcony, too): suddenly a kind of absolute certainty that I knew nothing (there was no I at all) that one knew nothing (one, there was no one, there was only); one couldnt know (I have to use words), one couldnt know, there was nothing to know, it was totally hopeless, it was completely IMPOSSIBLE to understand anything, even, even going beyond the mind, and no formulation was possible, there was no possibility of understanding. It was really so absolute that helping others, making the world progress, spiritual life, seeking the Divine, all of that seemed idle talk, empty words! There was nothing in it, it was nothing, and there was nothing to understand, it was impossible to understandit was impossible to BE. The feeling of a total incapacity. The experience was like a solventeverything seemed to dissolve: the world, the earth, people, life, intelligence, all of it, everything was dissolved. An absolutely negative state. And my solution was the same as always: when the experience was total and complete, when nothing was left, then: Who cares! (it could really be put in the most ordinary words), I adore You! And the I was something utterly insubstantial: there was no form, no being, no qualityonly I adore You. This I was I adore You, there was just enough I to adore You with.
From that moment on there was an inexpressible Sweetness, and within that Sweetness, a Voice so sweet and harmonious too! There was a sound but no wordsyet it held a perfectly clear meaning for me, like very precise words: You have just had your most creative moment!
--
Ultimately, looking at it like any idiot Who thinks himself intelligent, one could say: this must be why the Lord created the universe.
For the joy of this You.
0 1962-02-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Concerning a European disciple Who praises the merits of a certain pseudo-spiritual book, which Mother calls "spiritual romanticism":)
Its very European theyre like that.
--
But I knew it right from the start! Mon petit, at the age of five, I already knew it was miserable, it already seemed that way to me. But I made the best of it, and the Whole time I was working with Sri Aurobindo it was all right: I didnt once think about it, I took people as they were, for what they were, and life tooit was quite all right, things went on very happily. But now it seems so poor, so poor.
I would rather leave.
0 1962-02-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Actually, I have noticed one thing: nowadays if I spontaneously say something the way I see it, without trying to adapt myself to people, they dont understandits difficult to understand. And I am not speaking of people Who know nothing, but of those Who have lived and thought with me.
My vision of things the SAME thingshas become very, very different. Very different. When you read these Talks to me its exactly as though I were listening to someone else saying things I am transported back into a different persons consciousness. But at least its accessible, while now.
At that time, I had the sense of a higher way of living: I used to make a distinction between different ways of life. Now this so-called higher way of living seems so miserable to meso petty, mean, narrow that I very often find myself in the same position as those Who ask, But is there really something to it? And I understand them (even though I have a different will and vision of something to come that is not yet here), I understand the feeling of those Who came into contact with spiritual life and asked, What good is itwhat good is it? Is there anything worth living in it? We are NECESSARILY hemmed in, bound to live in narrowness and pettiness simply to keep alive, for the sake of all the bodys needs.
It takes such an effort to bring Light into this poverty, to bring a Force, a Reality, a Power, something, good Lord, something TRUE! Through constant effort and will, constant tension, suddenly, ah! I get two or three seconds and then it all ebbs away again.
--
Obviously a great, great deal of stability and inner calm is required. There was a keen sense of the absolute pettiness, stupidity and dullness of all outer circumstances, of this Whole bodily life in its external form, and AT THE SAME TIME a great symphony of divine joy. And both states were together like pulsations.
But it makes your head spin. You have to be very careful, it it makes you giddy!
--
You see, its like trying to alter the functioning of the organs. What is the process? Already the two are beginning to exist simultaneously. What does it take for one to disappear and the other to remain on its own, changed? Changed, because as it is now it wouldnt be enough to make the body function; the body wouldnt perform all the things it must perform, it would stay in a blissful state, delighting in its condition, but not for longit still has a lot of needs! Thats the trouble. It will be very easy for those Who come in one or two hundred years; they will only have to choose: not to belong to the old system any more or else to belong to the new.2 But now. A stomach has got to digest, after all! Well, that will mean a new way of adapting to the forces of Nature, a new functioning.
But for that to happen, some beings would have to prepare this new functioning.
--
I feel a very strong need for someone Who knows.
Yes, I too have quite often thought that someone should come here Who.
Who knows.
Who knows something.3
Thats what I was expecting from Sri Aurobindo.
--
But if he knew, he will be able to tell me. So it means it isnt time yet. Because I am with him consciously, mon petit, every night for hourstwo hours of my night, at leastnot joined to him, with him: like someone I see and talk to and Who talks to me.
Again last night.
--
But truly, if someone (I dont know Who or what this Someone is) if I am given the time, I will know I am convinced of it. For despite all the growing difficulties, there is also a growing knowledge, a constant progress. So from that standpoint, I CANNOT be mistaken; it is impossible. This Presence is becoming so concrete and so (what shall I say?) so helpful, so concrete in its help. But it obviously takes a long time.
This is exactly one month before the first radical turning point in Mother's yoga.
--
In a letter dated August 16, 1935, Sri Aurobindo writes: "Now I have got the hang of the Whole hanged thinglike a very Einstein I have got the mathematical formula of the Whole affair (unintelligible as in his own case to anybody but myself) and am working it out figure by figure."
Once again, it is interesting to note that animals or plants, even "things," seem to respond to the influence more readily than men.
0 1962-02-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This explanation is clear; and the healing was the result of tapasya. Its self-explanatory. Something was even saying to my body, to the bodys SUBSTANCE, O unbelieving substance, now you wont be able to say there are no miracles. Throughout all the work that was being done on the 20th, something was saying (I dont know Who, because it doesnt come like something foreign to me any more, its like a Wisdom, it seems like a Wisdom, something that knows: not someone in particular, but that which knows, whatever its form), something that knows was insisting to the body, by showing it certain things, vibrations, movements, From now on, O unbelieving substance, you cant say there are no miracles. Because the substance itself is used to each thing having its effect, to illnesses following a particular course and certain things even being necessary for it to be cured. This process is very subtle, and it doesnt come from the intellect, which can have a totally different interpretation of it; its rather a kind of consciousness ingrained in physical substance, and thats what was being addressed and being shown certain movements, certain vibrations and so forth: You see, from now on you cant say there are no miracles. In other words, a direct intervention of the Lord, Who doesnt follow the beaten path, but does things in His own way.
There was also that attack (it was rather serious and threw the doctor into a fit of anxiety) which took place, I think, the day before sari distribution.6 The next morning, throughout the distribution, someone else seemed to have taken possession of my body and to be doing what had to be done, taking care of all the difficulties; I was comfortable, serene, simply like a carefree spectator. I had nothing to worry about, someone was. (What someone? Someone, something, I dont know, theres no more difference, its not delineated like that any more; but anyway, it was a being, a force, a consciousness perhaps a part of myself, I dont know; none of this is clear-cut; its quite precise, but not divided, very smoothMo ther makes a rounded gestureno breaks.) Something, then, a will or a force or a consciousness plainly a powerhad taken possession of the body and was doing all the work, looking after everything. I was witnessing everything, smiling. But its gone now. It came specifically for that work (I was in pretty bad shape); when the work was over, it dissolvedit didnt leave abruptly but it became inactive. Afterwards, I felt rather confident. Well in any case, I thought, something similar could happen on the 21st, since it just happened now.
The 19th was so-so, and on the 20th I was concentrated all day long: no contacts with anyone, nothing external, only an intense invocation as intense and concentrated as when youre trying to melt into the Lord at death. It was like that. The same movement of identification, but at its core a will for everything to work out in a good way here [on the material plane]. In a good way I mean I said to the Lord, YOUR Good, the true Good, not. The true Good, a victorious Good, a real progress over the way life is usually lived. And I stayed in this unwavering concentration the Whole day, all the time, all the time: even when I spoke, it was something very external speaking. And then at night when I went to bed I felt something had changed the body felt completely different. When I got up in the morning, all the pains and disorders and dangers had vanished. Lord, I said, You have given me a gift of health.
And with this change, the bodily substance, the very stuff of the cells, was constantly being told, Dont you forget, now you see that miracles CAN happen. In other words, the way things work out in physical substance may not at all conform to the laws of Nature. Dont forget, now! It kept coming back like a refrain: Dont forget, now! This is how it is. And I saw how necessary this repetition was for the cells: they forget right away and try to find explanations (oh, how stupid can you be!). Its a sort of feeling (not at all an individual way of thinking), its Matters way of thinking. Matter is built like that, its part of its make-up. We call it thinking for lack of a better word, but its not thinking: it is a material way of understanding things, the way Matter is able to understand.
0 1962-02-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I did prepare something, it goes like this: in sleep one can have a very exact knowledge of what is going to happen, sometimes with astonishingly accurate material details; its as if everything were already worked out down to the least detail on an occult plane. Is this correct? What is this plane of knowledge? Is there more than one? How can one gain conscious access to it in the waking state? And how is it that serious people, Who have a divine realization, are sometimes so grossly mistaken in their predictions?
Ooh, but its a Whole world! (Mother laughs) Its not one question, its twenty!
If anything in it seems worthwhile to you.
--
When one is identified with the Supreme, there is a place where all is unequivocally known: in the past, in the present, in the future and everywhere. But when they return, those Who go there usually forget what they have seen. A particularly strict discipline is needed to remember. Thats the only realm where you cant be mistaken.
But the links of communication are seldom all there, so one rarely remembers.
Anyway, to go back to what I was saying, depending on the plane of ones vision, one can judge approximately how much time it will take to be realized. Immediate things are already realized, they are self-existent and can be seen in the subtle physical they already exist there, and the reflection (not even transcription) or projection of this image is what will take place in the material world the next day or a few hours later. In this case you see the thing accurately, in all its details, because its already there. Everything hinges on the precision and power of your vision: if your vision is objective and sincere, you will see the thing as it is; if you add personal sentiments or impressions, it gets colored. Accuracy in the subtle physical depends exclusively on the instrument, the one Who sees.
But as soon as you move into a subtler realm, like the vital (and the mental even more so), there is a narrow margin of possibilities. You can see the rough outlines of what is going to take place, but in the details it can be this way or that way: it is possible for certain wills or influences to interfere and create discrepancies.
--
Meanwhile, there are all sorts of ways to receive indications. That exact, precise and (whats the word?) habitual vision certain people have may stem from various sources. It may be a vision through identity with circumstances and things when you have learned to expand your consciousness. It may be an indication from some chatterbox of the invisible world, Who has got it into his head to let you know whats going to happenthis is often the case. Then everything depends on your harbingers morals: if he is having fun at your expense, he spins stories for youthis almost always happens to those Who receive their information from entities. To bait you, they may repeatedly tell you how things are going to turn out (for they have a universal vision in some vital or mental realm); then, when they are sure you trust them, they may start telling you fibs and, as they say in English, you make a fool of yourself. This happens frequently! You have to be in a higher consciousness than these fellows, these entities (or these minor gods, as some call them) and able to check from above the value of their statements.
With a universal mental vision, you can see (and this is very interesting) how the mental world operates to get realized on the physical plane. You see the various mental formations, how they converge, conflict, combine and relate to one another, which ones get the upper hand, exert a stronger influence and achieve a more total realization. Now, if you really want a higher vision, you must get out of the mental world and see the original wills as they descend to take expression. In this case, you may not have all the details, but the central FACT, the fact in its central truth, is indisputable, undeniable, absolutely correct.
Some people also have the faculty of predicting things already existing on earth but at a distance, far from physical eyestheyre generally those Who have the capacity to expand and extend their consciousness. Their vision is slightly more subtle than physical vision, and depends on an organ subtler than its purely material counterpart (what could be called the life of this organ). So, by projecting their consciousness, and having the will to see, they can clearly see things that already exist but are beyond our ordinary field of vision. Those Who have this capacitysincere people Who tell what they see, not blufferssee with perfect precision and exactness.
Ultimately, absolute sincerity is the great deciding factor for those Who predict or foresee. Unfortunately, because of peoples curiosity, their insistence and the pressure they exert (which very few can resist), an almost involuntary mechanism of inner imagination comes to add just that small missing element to something not seen with precision or exactness. Thats what causes flaws in prediction. Very few have the courage to say, Ah no, I dont know this, I dont see that, this eludes me. They dont even have the courage to say it to themselves! So then, with a tiny drop of imagination, which acts almost subconsciously, the vision or information gets rounded outit can turn out to be anything at all! Very few people can resist this tendency. I have known many, many psychics, many extraordinarily gifted beings, and only a handful were able to stop just at the point where their knowledge stopped. Or else they embellish. Thats what gives these faculties their slightly dubious quality. One would have to be a great saint, a great sage, and completely free from other peoples influences (I dont speak of those Who seek fame: they fall into the most flagrant traps); because even goodwillwanting to satisfy people, please them, help themis enough to distort the vision.
(Smiling) Are you satisfied? Have I answered everything?
--
Ive had many such experiences. Once I was walking along a mountain path wide enough only for one: on one side, a precipice, on the other, sheer rock. Three children were behind me and a fourth person brought up the rear. I was in the lead. The path skirted the rock so you couldnt see what lay ahead. It was quite dangerous, besides: one slip and you fell off the cliff. I was walking in front when suddenly, with other eyes than these (yet I was carefully watching my steps), I saw a snake lying on the rocks around the bend. Waiting. I took one soft step and a snake was actually there! This spared me the shock of surprise (because I had seen it and was advancing cautiously), and as there was no shock of surprise, I could say to the children without scaring them, Stop, be quiet, dont move. A shock might have caused a mishap the snake had heard us and was already on the defensive, coiled before his hole, head swayinga viper. It was in France. Nothing happened, but with confusion and commotion, Who knows?
This type of thing has happened to me very, very oftenfour times with snakes. There was one incident here near the fishing village of Ariankuppam, a place where a river empties into the sea. Night had fallen swiftly, it was pitch dark, and I was walking along a road when right in the middle of a step (I had already lifted my foot and was about to lower it), I distinctly heard a voice in my ear: Watch out! Yet no one had spoken. So I looked, and just as my foot was about to touch the ground, I saw an enormous black cobra right where I was casually going to put my foot. Those fellows dont like that sort of thing! It slithered away and swam across the waterwhat a beauty, mon petit! Hood wide open, head held high, he swam across like a king. I would certainly have been punished for my impertinence!
--
Theres a kind of extension of the physical senses. In American Indians, for instance, the senses of hearing and smell are far more extended than ours (in dogs too!). When I was eight or ten years old, I had an Indian friend Who came with Buffalo Bill in the days of the Hippodrome that was a long time ago, I was around eight. He was so sharp that he could put his ear to the ground and tell, from the intensity of the vibrations, how far the sound of footsteps was coming from. All the children immediately said, Id really like to know how to do that! And so you try.
Thats how you prepare yourself. You think youre just having fun, but you are preparing yourself for later.
0 1962-03-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Theres a big difference between people Who think about what they write and those Who write without thinking. With the latter, even when their handwriting is ostensibly clear, there is a faint cloud and I understand nothing the words seem to dance. Its the same for speech; people Who speak without thinking simply make a humming noise the words pour out but I understand nothing.
Nine years later, Mother will remember and on December 11, 1971, find it, on the contrary, very good to say for the time had come.
0 1962-03-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just recently, as I told you, things truly became a little disgusting, dangerous, and for an hour or an hour and a half I did a sadhana like this (Mother clenches her fists), keeping hold of this body and body-consciousness. And the Whole time the Force was at work there (it was like kneading a very resistant dough), something was saying to me, Look, you cant deny miracles any longer. It was being said to this consciousness (not to me, of course), this body-consciousness: Now you cant deny it miracles do happen. It was forced to see; there it was, gaping like an idiot being shown the skyAh! And its so stupid that it didnt even have any joy of discovery! But it was forced to see, the thing was right under its nosethere was no escaping it, it had to be admitted. But you know what, mon petit, as soon as I let up on the pressureforgotten!
I remember the Whole experience, of course, but the body-consciousness forgot. The slightest difficulty, even the shadow or the recollection of a difficulty, was enough for it to start up all over again: Oh oh! Now whats going to happen? The same old anxieties and stupidities.
So I realize that we have to keep on trying.
Whats annoying, though, is that in order to shake it all up, I have to go through some pretty bad moments physically. So dont worry, I understand how it is for others! I myself never lose either consciousness or contact with not with Knowledge, but with the total EXPERIENCE of identification. Only here in Matter does the work have this particular nature. So l understand how it is for people Who live heedlessly from day to day, from minute to minute, for Whom its not a constant, permanent work of each second, totally conscious and deliberate. And besides, this body is so willing the poor thing, sometimes I have found it crying like a child, imploring, How do you get out of this mess? Thats exactly why all the people Who have achieved the inner realization have called this work impossible. Its their own impossibility! I know its not impossible, I know it will come, but how long will it take? That I dont know.
My feeling is that if you try to hurry, to rush, to speed things up a little, it jams, it becomes like stoneit turns to stone again. It took the stone a long time to become a man. So I dont want that. You cant get too impatientits not even impatience, but pressure. Beyond a certain pressure, it turns to stone. So I understand people Who attain realization and, blissfully enjoying it, kick the Whole thing out: Fine, Ill do without it!
Thats what has always happened.
--
But it has become such a delicate play! A MINUTE thing, minute, can throw everything out of gearone simple ordinary movement. If through habit you slip back into the ordinary functioning (these are infinitesimal things, not easily seen, subtle, tenuous; one must be very, very, VERY alert), if this happens, the Whole new thing stops. Then you have to wait. Wait until the ordinary functioning consents to stop, and that means meditating, entering into contemplationgoing over the Whole path again. Then, when you have caught hold of That again and can stay there for a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes (its marvelous when it lasts a few minutes). And then it gets jammed again and everything has to be done over.
I am not saying this to discourage you, but to tell you that one must really and truly be patient. The only possible way to do it is in a sort of passivity: not to WANT the resultWANTING the result brings in an ego movement which spoils it all.
0 1962-03-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
and that I am giving it only to I will say to Whom.
So it doesnt matter. Actually, you could type it up just as it is on the tape. You want to read it to me mainly to get (laughing) some additions, hmm?
--
Of course I do! The Whole path is there.
Well, lets make a date for fifty years from now and see how much it interests us then.
--
To begin with, I said that the vital is peopled by small entities, small formations, the remnants of human beings Who have died. But there is a Whole vital world which has nothing to do with that one, a world peopled by beings of the vital proper, beings of great power and even great beauty. Most people Who dabble in occultism without having a deep enough spiritual life are immediately deluded by themsome even take them as the supreme God and worship them. Thats generally how religions are created. They are a great success. They are the supreme God of many a religion they are beings of the vital world, and can assume an appearance of overwhelming beauty. They are the biggest impostors in the world, and dangerous at that; it takes the spiritual instinct, the instinct of true spiritual purity, not to be deceived by them. Many religions and sects are founded on revelations and miracles, and every bit of it comes from vital beings.
Its one of the greatest problems in human life; I dont mean spiritual life, but the life of people Who deal with the beyond.
There are skies (not heavens) in the vital world that are truly paradises. Naturally the real divine element is lacking, but only spiritual purity and the true spiritual sense can show you the difference. All Who remain within the vital or mental worlds are completely deluded. They see marvelous things, miracles in profusion (thats where you find the most miracles!).
By neglecting to explain this aspect [in this Talk], I passed over a large part of the topic in silence. I usually dont speak of those things, or else mention them only in passingit terrifies people and they immediately start wondering, Oh, is it really a god? Is it this is it that? Could it be a devil in disguise? They panic.
--
It should at least be mentioned that some beings in the vital world can take on completely deceptive appearances at willall the most dazzling lights are found in the vital, but with a particular quality. So those Who have truly approached THE Light cant be deceived. Because its indefinable, something the spiritual sense alone can feel: perfect security, perfect peace, perfect purity (although I hesitate to use the word purity, which has taken on such an idiotic meaning); what I mean is the absence of all admixture.
To those with the spiritual sense, the most dazzling vital lights always seem to have something artificial about themthey FEEL artificial and cold, hard, aggressive, deceptive. But thats the point: you yourself must be beyond all this. Not to be fooled, you mustnt fool yourself!
Actually, thats the main reason I dont like to talk about occultism. It puts people in touch with an extremely dangerous world which cant be safely entered unless one is (I cant even say a saint, because its not true; some saints enter the vital world and get right into it!) unless one is transformed, unless one has the true spiritual consciousness. On this condition alone are you perfectly safe. So where are the people with the spiritual consciousness? There are really very few of them, very few. And above all, in those Who have this occult curiosity there are also all sorts of vital movements, which make it dangerous for them to enter that world. Unless, of course, they go shielded by the gurus presence; with that, you can go anywhere, its the same as going there with him. And if you do go with him, all is well; he has the knowledge and he protects you. But going there all on your own is you need the Divine Protection itself! Or the protection of the guru Who represents the Divine. With the gurus protection you are safe.
But isnt it possible to have a fruitful collaboration with those beings? Should they be avoided altogether, or what?
--
The other day, didnt I tell you the story of those entities working for me? (It wasnt you? Id had a vision.) In fact, I very often see entities like Nature spirits when I enter the subtle physical and work there (usually for people here and the Ashram, and for the world at large), I very, very often have them with me, or else I meet them in the course of my work. They are forces, generally feminine in appearance, that do some work and have a great deal of power. They are usually the ones that respond to Tantric invocations (I dont mean the Tantrics Who call on Kali or Durga, thats something else altogether, those belong to a totally different world). Most of the time these Nature forces are very willing to helpat any rate, they are wonderfully obliging with me! But they are limited beings, with their own ideas and laws, their own volition, and when vexed they can do unpleasant things. Yet they are not hostile beings, nor are they vital beings: they are personified forces of physical Nature, in the subtle physical.
A world of things could be said.
--
I can tell you the result: a lot of people will lose all confidence in what they see. Then it becomes impossible to work with them. I cant even teach them to receive what I tell them in silence any more; they instantly start wondering, Oh, is it Mother or a spirit of falsehood? They really have no sense of discrimination, you see, they dont KNOW! So if they have to come every time, wondering Was it you or was it? And when theyre in that state they dont listen properly. Theres a Whole range of work I cant do any more, because they lack the necessary discrimination. So I normally dont say anything.
I really prefer to say nothing.
--
Then it becomes inanitiesits too incomplete. Id rather not attract peoples attention to these topics too much. There must be other things to publish. Since you cant give the full picture, it becomes sheer inanity. If you wanted to be perfectly complete, you could write volumes (its a tremendous world of experiences!). And saying just a thing or two makes you look like one of those ninnies Who have a few experiences and think theyve discovered the world!
Bhikku: Buddhist monk.
0 1962-03-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And thats all I said. Maybe I didnt put it in exactly those words, but I said it was for those Who love me. Thats the point. For those Who have loved me, well, its all right, I give it to them; even if they forget me, it will make them remember. But its my gift to those Who continue to love me. And I dont intend to give them a worthless gift.
No, no, I must really have expressed myself very poorly, because it was quite the opposite. I deem this Agenda far too intimate, far too near and dear to me, to be thrown as fodder to a bunch of idiots!
--
No, not that. I said two things. One, if I make it through to the end, I may even let it be shown to the public, for the living proof will be there: You dont need to scoffjust see where it leadsHERE! And if the Lord decides its not for this time, well, then I will give it to those Who have loved me, Who have lived with me, worked with me, endeavored with me, and Who respect what was attempted. It will be my parting gift if I go. And I dont intend to.
I certainly hope not!
--
I have my pride, and I want the people Who work with me to be content; this gives me more pleasure than anything. Of course, ideally. But one is never truly satisfied, one will never be truly satisfied; one will always go from aspiration to aspiration. But as a base, one should at least feel a sense of purpose in life. You said the very thing that hurts the most!
(Mother gazes at Satprem for a long time)
0 1962-04-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is in that group a man Whom I must have seen once or twice, Who is not with them in spirit, but only in appearance, but without knowledge. He does not know what kind of being it is. And he always hopes to make him accept me, believing it is truly Sri Aurobindo. I saw this being last night. I wont tell you all the details of the vision. It is not necessary. But I must say that I was fully conscious, aware of everything, knowing that there was an Asuric Force there, but not rejecting it, because of the infinity of Sri Aurobindo. I knew that everything is part of him and I do not want to reject anything. I met this being last night three times, even apologized for sins that I have not committed, and in full love and surrender.
I woke up at twelve, remembering everything.
--
I woke up at two and noticed that the heart had been affected by the attack of this group that is wanting to take my life away from this body, because they know that as long as I am in a body upon earth their purpose cannot succeed. Their first attack was many years ago in vision and action. It happened during the night and I spoke of it to no one. I noted the date, and if I can come out of this crisis, I will find it and give it out. They would have liked me dead years ago. It is they Who are responsible for these attacks on my life. Until now I am alive because the Lord wants me to be alive, otherwise I would have gone long ago.
I am no more in my body. I have left the Lord to take care of it, if it is to have the Supramental or not. I know, and I have also said, that now is the last fight. If the purpose for which this body is alive is to be fulfilled, that is to say, the first steps towards the Supramental transformation, then it will continue today. It is the Lords decision. I am not even asking what He has decided. If the body is incapable of bearing the fight, if it has to be dissolved, then humanity will pass through a critical time. What the Asuric Force that has succeeded in taking the appearance of Sri Aurobindo will create is a new religion or thought, perhaps cruel and merciless, in the name of the Supramental Realisation. But everybody must know that it is not true, it is not Sri Aurobindos teaching, not the truth of his teaching. The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good and great and compassionate and divine. Et cest Lui qui aura la victoire finale.1
0 1962-04-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
1) I have received a letter from the publisher, Who reiterates his requests for alterations. I am replying to him this very day that I will write another book. I have no idea how I am going to write the book!
2) I have finished the work you gave me. I will bring it to you when you wish, but there is no hurry at allrest.
0 1962-05-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The first sign of the return to individuality was a prick of pain, a tiny point (Mother holds between her fingers a minuscule point in the space of her being). Yes, because I have a sore, a sore in a rather awkward place, and it hurts2 (Mother laughs). So I felt the pain: it was the sign of individuality coming back. Other than that, there was nothing any moreno body, no individual, no limits. But its strange, I have made a strange discovery3: I used to think it was the individual (Mother touches her body) Who experienced pain and disabilities and all the misfortunes of human life; well, I perceived that what experiences misfortunes is not the individual not my body, but that each misfortune, each pain, each disability has its own individuality as it were, and each one represents a battle.
And my body is a world of battles.
0 1962-05-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(During the night of April 3, Mother had encountered an asuric being Who had managed to assume Sri Aurobindo's appearance, as well as a group of people wanting to found a Nietzschean-type religion. Following this encounter, a heart attack had gravely endangered Mother's life. But this was not the first such meeting.)
I had said [on April 3] I would find the date of my first encounter with that fake Sri Aurobindo. What I found was the date of another experience that followed that encounter by perhaps three or four weeks, so that pins it down (Mother holds up an old desk-calendar page on which she had written:)
--
And I immediately felt that it was the expression of certain peoples thoughts. During the war there was a Whole clique (I know their names and all the details) Who said I had influenced Sri Aurobindo, made him deviate from his nationalist path and turn towards the Allies; they considered me to have ruined his life, his consciousness, his workeverything, you understand.1
And I was seeing the very IMAGE of that in this vision. A person I wont name (but I spoke to him afterwards; hes still here) came out of the room to tell me all this. In my vision I told him two things (it seems very distant nowit was back in 59and I no longer recall if I told him one thing after the other or both together). First of all, I protested against everything that fake Sri Aurobindo was saying about me, and at the same time I was going towards the person coming out of the room (its someone living here, you know, Who is, Who was quite close to Sri Aurobindo. Apparently he was under the influence of certain doubting thoughts, certain doubts, thats why he was there). I called him by name and spoke to him in English: But surely we have had a true spiritual relationship, a true union! Immediately he melted and said yes, and rushed headlong into my arms. In other words, that was his conversion, and thats why I spoke to him about it afterwards; I didnt tell him about the experience but I spoke of the doubt that was in him. It was truly a beginning of conversion in one part of his being, and for that reason I wont name him. And along with this, in answer to what that fake Sri Aurobindo was saying, I said forcefully (also in English): This means the negation of all spiritual experience! And immediately the Whole scene, the Whole construction, everythingpoof! Vanished, dissolved. The Force swept it all away.
Later, when I had that second vision April 3, 1962, I saw that the same being was behind this would-be Sri Aurobindo (and with a Whole group organized around himpeople, ceremonies and so on). So from that I concluded that the thing had been developing. But when I first encountered those people [in 1959] it was merely something in the Subconscient and the effect was only psychological (an hour or two was enough to sort things out and put them in order). It didnt affect my health. But this time.
So it was in 59 that I first saw them, and it must have been the end of June or the beginning of July. This note [the desk-calendar page] is what gave me the clue, because I know that the other experience [of Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical] came a few weeks later.
You say there was a Whole group organized around that asuric beingpeople, ceremonies.
Ceremonies?
You can take that outits not that sort of thing; it was a Whole ORGANIZATION.
But what I would like to ask is whether those people exist in the subtle physical or in our physical world.
No, nomy visions are in the subtle physical, but those people exist here on earth, although I dont know Who they are. As I said, I knew only one of them. But its certain that a physical organization corresponding to these visions does exist. I dont know the details they just havent been given to me. But it corresponds to a group of PHYSICAL people.
Powerful?
--
There is certainly at least one Tantric among them and a highly skilled Tantric, someone Who knows his business. That, yesall the signs are there!
But how powerful are they outwardly? The people around that fellow [the fake Sri Aurobindo], Who leveled all those reproaches at me, used to be in the Ashram they have since left. They were quite real. But the ones in the last group [in the most recent vision], I dont know I dont know them physically, so I cant say.
One day, perhaps, Ill find out.
--
Oh yes! The physical consciousness is something very complex; it includes the Whole physical, conscious world.
My physical consciousness has been universalized for a long, long time, it encompasses all terrestrial movements3; but the body is limited solely to this small concentration of substance (Mother touches her body)thats what I call the body-consciousness.
--
Some people wanted to get me nominated for the Nobel peace prize; I was asked for a statement and thats what I wrote. I wanted to say that it wasnt this person Who did thingsit was all Sri Aurobindo.
They had wanted to give the Nobel prize to Sri Aurobindo, but he left the year before the decision was to be made. And as they dont give the prize to dead people, he never got it. Then they wanted to transfer it to me, and I wrote this note, because the last thing I want is name and fame. Thats all there was to it. They didnt give a peace prize that year.
I believe the Whole affair is now buried and forgotten.
***
--
There was, in fact, a Whole group of Ashram people (they might be called the Ashram "intelligentsia") Who, influenced by Subhas Bose, were strongly in favor of the Nazis and the Japanese against the British. (It should be recalled that the British were the invaders of India, and thus many people considered Britain's enemies to be automatically India's friends.) It reached the point where Sri Aurobindo had to intervene forcefully and write: "I affirm again to you most strongly that this is the Mother's war.... The victory of one side (the Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces: the victory of the other side would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished.... The Allies at least have stood for human values, though they may often act against their own best ideals (human beings always do that); Hitler stands for diabolical values or for human values exaggerated in the wrong way until they become diabolical.... That does not make the English or Americans nations of spotless angels nor the Germans a wicked and sinful race, but...." (July 29, 1942 and Sept. 3, 1943, Cent. Ed., Vol. XXVI.394 ff.) And on her side also, Mother had to publicly declare: "It has become necessary to state emphatically and clearly that all Who by their thoughts and wishes are supporting and calling for the victory of the Nazis are by that very fact collaborating with the Asura against the Divine and helping to bring about the victory of the Asura.... Those, therefore, Who wish for the victory of the Nazis and their associates should now understand that it is a wish for the destruction of our work and an act of treachery against Sri Aurobindo." (May 6, 1941, original English.)
See note at the end of this conversation
0 1962-05-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, no! Nothing withdrewit had already withdrawn a long time ago. The consciousness wasnt at all centered in the body. When I said I, for instance, it NEVER occurred to me that I was this (Mother points to her body). I, the I Who spoke, was always a will ENTIRELY independent of the body, entirely independent.
But there has been a strange phenomenon [since April 3]. Before, I used to say, I am outside my body. It was always I am outside my body. But this time, the body seemed to have been consigned or entrustedmore like entrusted.
It has gradually come back, in the sense that actively. No, I cant even say thatits not true. What has come back is the increasingly precise memory of how I had organized the life of this body, the Whole formation I had made, down to the smallest details for the things I was using, how I was making use of them, how I had organized all the objects around the body, all that. What has come back is the memoryis it memory? The awareness of all that has returned, as if I were putting the two back into contact. And so, instead of the body being left totally in the hands of those around me, the formation I had made is coming back, with certain changes, certain improvements and simplifications (but mind you, I had neither the intention nor the will to change anythingthose things are simply coming back into the consciousness like that, with certain changes made). In short, its a kind of conscious formation recrystallizing around this body.
And I have the perception a sensation, really, the sensation of something not at all me, but entrusted to me. More and more now, there is the feeling of something being entrusted to me in the universal organization for a definite purpose. Thats really the sensation I have now (the mind is very calm, so its difficult to express I dont think all these things, they are more like perceptions). And its not the usual kind of sensation: the ONLY (I insist on this), the ONLY sensation that remains in the old way is physical pain. And really, those points of pain they seem like the SYMBOLIC POINTS of what remains of the old consciousness.
--
If that state remained, I would truly be free of the world as it is. Nonetheless, people can still hear me, cant they? And I can still see, but in a peculiar waya very peculiar way. At times I see with greater precision than ever before (generally, as I told you the other day, I seem to see from behind a veil; thats constant). I hear things that way too. Certain sounds. On one occasion I noticed a sound, a seemingly imperceptible sound, coming from about a hundred yards away, and it seemed to be right here. All this has changed I mean the Whole way the organs function. Have the organs themselves changed, or is it their functioning? I dont know. But they all obey another lawabsolutely.
And I have the definite impression that that so-called illness was the external and ILLUSORY form of an indispensable process of transformation; without that so-called illness there could be no transformationit is not an illness, I KNOW it: when people speak of illness, something in me laughs and says, What a bunch of geese!
--
Otherwise, you know, I would not have consented. If That had not agreed, I would have said to my body, Go on, keep going, move and it would have gone on. It stopped because That said yes. And then I understood that that Whole so-called illness was necessary for the Work. So I let myself go. And then what I told you about happened: this body was consigned to the care of three people, Who looked after it marvelously, by the wayreally, it filled me with constant admirationa selflessness, a care oh, it was wonderful! I was saying to the Lord the Whole time, Truly, Lord, You have arranged all the material conditions in an absolutely marvelous, incredible way, bringing together whatever is necessary, and placing around me people beyond all praise. For at least two weeks they had a hard time of itquite hard. The body was a wreck, you know! (Mother laughs) They had to think of everything, decide everything, take care of everything. And they looked after it very, very wellreally very well.
Its a wonderful story, seen as I see it. And I have observed it very carefully: it isnt an ordinary story seen with an exceptional knowledge, but a true Knowledge and a true Consciousness witnessing an exceptional story. Those three people may not be aware of how utterly exceptional it is, but thats simply because their consciousness is not sufficiently awake. But they too have been, and continue to be, exceptional.
The Whole story is a fairy tale.
And the only concrete thing left in this worldthis world of illusionis pain. It seems to me the very essence of Falsehood.
--
What is coming back is the way objects the Whole mass of material substance making up this bodys environmenthad been organized; thats what is coming back, with some small changes (none of this comes through the head; the head has nothing to do with it). It is a sort of formation reconcretizing itself for lifes outer organization.
The old way of relating no longer exists at all.
0 1962-05-22, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(The beginning of this conversation, unfortunately not kept, dealt with certain instances of human ugliness. The topic, in fact, was Satprem's break with X Who had been his guru for the past few years. The reasons for this rupture may one day be told, but it should be stressed right now that the fault did not really lie with X, Whom Satprem continued to respect, but with a group of schemers at the Ashram Who fastened onto X in the hope of god knows what "powers." It is perhaps just as well that the human "ugliness" here in question has vanished from Satprem's records, foralthough it did come up again immediately after Mother's departureit concerned only the Ashram disciples. All the details and all Mother's reflections on the subject have thus been lost, with the exception of this last fragment:)
What a world!
--
Theres such a wonderful passage in The Synthesis of Yoga (The Yoga of Self-Perfection), where he mentions four things (you surely remember this), four things the disciple needs (I have just translated it). I knew this, of course, but the passage is especially timely nowparticularly after that last experience, which is a jolt for a physical being. The fourth thing is wonderful. The first three we know: equality, peace and (a hard one) a spiritual ease in all circumstances. He added the word spiritual so people wouldnt think only of material easeits an ease in feelings, in sensations, in everything. But when you have a lot of pain its obviously not so easy! When physical pain keeps you from sleeping and eating, when you are plagued by constant physical painor rather by a Whole host of physical pains!well, that bodily ease becomes difficult. Its the one thing thathas seemed difficult to me; but anyway, its being investigated I think it was sent for me to investigate.
But the last thing he mentions is a marvel the joy and laughter of the soul. And its so true, so true! Always, all the time, no matter what happens, even when this body is in dreadful pain, the soul is laughing joyously within. Always, always, always.
0 1962-05-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have looked at this very, very often. There was even a time when I thought that if one could get a total, complete and perfect knowledge of the Whole working of physical Nature as we perceive it in the world of Ignorance, then this might be a means to rediscover or reattain the Truth of things. After my last experience [of April 13] I can no longer think this way.
I dont know if I am making myself clear. I thought for a time, a very long time, that if Science went to its furthest possible limits (if this is conceivable), it would join up with true Knowledge. In the study of the composition of matter, for exampleby pressing the investigation further and further ona point would be reached where the two would meet. But when I had that experience of passing from the eternal Truth-Consciousness to the consciousness of the individualized world,1 well it appeared impossible to me. And if you ask me now, I think that this possibility of Science pushed to its extreme limits joining up with true Knowledge, and this impossibility of any true conscious connection with the material world are both incorrect. There is something else.
And more and more these days, I find myself facing the Whole problem as if I had never seen it before.
Both paths may be leading towards a third point, and that third point is what I am at present not exactly studying; I am rather in quest of it the point where the two paths merge into a third that would be the TRUE thing.
But in any case, if it could be absolutely total (theres an if here), objective, scientific knowledge pushed to its extreme limits would certainly bring you to the threshold. Thats what Sri Aurobindo means. But he also says its fatal, because all those Who went in for that knowledge believed in it as an absolute truth, thus closing the door to the other approach. In this respect it is fatal.
From my own experience, though, I could say to all those Who believe EXCLUSIVELY in the spiritual approach, the approach through inner experience, that thisat least if its exclusiveis equally fatal. For it reveals to them ONE aspect, ONE truth of the Whole but not THE Whole. The other side seems just as indispensable to me, for when I was so utterly in that supreme Realization, this other falsified, outer realization was undeniably just a distortion (and probably accidental) of something EQUALLY TRUE.
This something is what we are seeking. And perhaps not merely seekingwe may be taking part in the MAKING of it.
--
Who knows? Perhaps the very multiplicity of approaches will yield the Secret the Secret that will open the door.
I dont think any single individual on earth (as it is now) no matter how great he may be, no matter how eternal his consciousness and origin, can all by himself change and realize. Change the world, change the creation as it is, and realize that higher Truth, the Truth that will be a new worlda truer, if not absolutely true, world. A certain number of individuals (until now they seem to have come in succession, in time, but they might also come as a collectivity, in space) would seem indispensable for this Truth to be concretized and realized.
--
Of course, its been a long time since there has been any question of three dimensionsall that belongs ABSOLUTELY to the world of illusion and falsehood. But now the Whole use of the sense of the fourth dimensionalong with all it entailsseems superficial to me! And so much so that I cant recapture it. The other world, the three-dimensional world, is completely unreal; but now that one (what can I say?) seems conventional to me. Like a conventional transcription opening a particular type of approach to you.
And as for expressing what the other, the true position is like. It is so far beyond any intellectual state that I cant manage to put it into words.
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a very impersonal sort of state in which that Whole habit of reacting to outside things, the things around me, has completely vanished. But nothing has come to replace it. It is an undulation.
Thats all.
--
And as for the Agenda, well it would simply stop, thats all, for the Whole time youre away. I might also have nothing to say, I dont know. It could be that I wont have anything to say for two or three months, or even longer. I cant say. I dont know whats going to happen to me I mean happen to this Whole collection (Mother indicates her body), this collection of bodily experiences and research. I havent been told anything I dont try to know and I dont know. So I will probably have nothing to say. On the Whole, thats how it looks to me.
There is no definite answer in the consciousness.
--
(After a silence) Among those Who have gone beyond the stage of needing successive reincarnations to develop their psychic beings, among those Whose souls are conscious, fully developed, there are some Who (what shall I say?) Who are chosen or destined to participate in a certain terrestrial action. And in the process of reincarnation, there is always always some degree of confusion and disarray, you see. I can speak of my own case, if you like; despite every precaution, certain kinds of confusion couldnt be avoided and of course this complicated the work. It was the same for Sri Aurobindo. And all this confusion sometimes greatly disrupts the work.
But there are a certain number of beingsnot many Who have come back on earth ONLY to take part in a particular work, in a particular way. And outer things, personal and individual things, are virtually sacrificed to that. Certain faculties, for instance, Whose source is the higher entity, faculties that in an ordinary life would result in a measure of power or fame or success or realization, are placed under conditions where their outer effect is subordinated to the needs of a particular work.
Let me put it to you more clearly: your physical body, for example, should have been either stronger or more supple or endowed with certain very strong vital compensations, so that you wouldnt suffer from your working conditions. Of course, for someone following a yogic ascent, Whose soul is in the process of formation, the external conditions of life are normally what is best for inner development, whatever that may beeven if, on the surface, those conditions arent good. So the only advice you can give such a person is, Well, either renounce the spiritual life or else putup with it. But thats not your case. There is a Mission, a work, and a kind of gap between a certain physical formation and that Mission. So if you ask me plainly what I see, I can tell you plainly, instead of saying as I would to certain sadhaks or anyone sincerely wanting to do yoga, Take it or leave it; you must learn to transform yourself inwardly to the point where you can master the body and its needs. I cant tell you that, because thats not how it is for you.
I mean it may beit may be that even an inner transformation (a complete conversion of the vital being, for instance) wouldnt necessarily bring an improvement in your health. It is here where. Its not something I see imperatively. And to go back to ordinary life would be the end of everythingof your physical life and your inner life too.
0 1962-05-29, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Almost no philosophy, nothing intellectualalmost a story. His work presented in an entirely practical and matter-of-fact way, like the talks I used to give to the children here. When I said to the children, This, you know, is why you are here, I told them in a way they could understand, didnt I? Well the book should be like that. If I were to write (I will never write a book on Sri Aurobindo! Never, never, never I know it), but were I ever to write a book on Sri Aurobindo, thats the book I would write, something like a fairy tale. Just imagine. You see life, you see how it is, you are used to this sort of existence; and its dreary and its sad (some people find it entertainingbecause it doesnt take much to entertain them!). Well, behind it all there is a fairy tale. Something in the making, something thats going to be beautiful, beautiful, inexpressibly beautiful. And we shall take part in it. You have no idea, you think you will forget everything when you die, leave it all behind you but its not true! And all Who feel the call to a beautiful, luminous, joyous, progressive life, well they will all take part in it, in one way or another. You dont know now, but you will after a while. There you are.
A fairy tale.
--
Your first book is prophetic and most beautiful, but I must say its something beyond most peoples reachits really a book for us, to put us into contact with all Who are interested in yo public.
What I see is almost a childrens book, fga, in the spiritual life: an elite. It is a book for an elite, not for the generalor a Whole generation aged ten to eighteen, thousands of children. With lovely pictures.
(silence)
--
Splendid. I am infinitely grateful to her. My body has never asked for fun or well-being or anything else. Thats life, it said, and you just have to take it as it is. And thats why when I first met someone Who told me it could be otherwise (I was already past twenty), I said, Oh, really? Is that so? (Mother laughs) And then when he told me all about Thons teachings and The Cosmic Life and about the inner God and a new world that would be a world of beauty and (at least) of peace and light well, I rushed into it headlong.
But even then I was told: It depends on YOU alone, not on circumstancesabove all, dont blame circumstances; you must find it in yourself, the transformative element is within you. And you can do it wherever you are, even in a cell at the bottom of a hole. The groundwork was already done, you see, since the body never asked for anything.
--
It is very interesting, mon petit. As you were telling me about it, I automatically went into that state. And there was a kind ofhow shall I put it? I dont know what to call it. It is a movement akin to will, but it has nothing to do with thought, its a feeling: I wanted to take you into the experience. And it was shown to meliterally shown that your Whole relationship with the inner and outer worlds is situated here (gesture above the head); thats why it is so well expressed through intellectual activity. But here (gesture to the solar plexus) theres not much. And I was seeing this, you know, I was touching it. It only comes indirectly, as a consequence. And then down here (gesture lower down): NOTHING. It remains just the way it was formed when you came down to earth!
And here (umbilical region) I was shown that a sort of widening of the being is needed, a widening of the vibrationsa peace, a calm within the immensity. HEREthe prana, that isis where there should be a widening into peace, peace, peace and calm. But within the immensity.
0 1962-05-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the dreams it gives me! Oh, theres a Whole series of them, with particular styles and categories. You start down a flight of stairsno more stairs; you want to take a certain road the road closes; you want to catch someoneyou cant. All kinds of things. And although these dreams (I have a Whole collection of them, in fact) recur with certain minor outward differences, they are all of the same type. Its a well-known type which I now classify as self-imposed troubles. When I get out of it and look, I see very clearly that its only this nasty habit we have of fretting over nothing! (Laughingly) Oh, whatever we want to do, immediately theres a complication, a difficulty.
Yes, these dreams arise from the subconscient; they are primarily subconscious habits. But the pain, the thorns in the garmentits so clear! (Mother laughs) And no way to get comfortable!
--
One day I will certainly use the same method on those room changes, but for that it will have to become very clear and distinct, well defined in the consciousness. Because that change of room (intellectually you would call it a change of consciousness, but that means nothing at all; were dealing here with something very, very material) I have sometimes gone through it without experiencing ANY CHANGE OF EFFECT, which probably means I was centered not in the material consciousness but in a higher consciousness dwelling and looking on from elsewherea witness consciousness and I was in a state where everything flows flows like a river of tranquil peace. Truly, its marvelousall creation, all life, all movements, all things, and everything like a single mass, with the body in the midst of it all, blending homogeneously with the Whole and it all flows on like a river of peace, peaceful and smiling, on to infinity. And then oops! You trip (gesture of inversion2) and once again find yourself SITUATEDyou ARE somewhere, at some specific moment of time; and then theres a pain here, a pain there, a pain. And sometimes I have seen, I have witnessed the change from the one to the other WITHOUT feeling the pains or experiencing the thing concretely, which means that I wasnt at all in the body, I wasnt BOUND to the body I was seeing, only seeing, just like a witness. And its always accompanied by the kind of observation an indulgent (but not blind) friend might make: But why? Why that again? Thats how it comes. Whats the use of that? And I cant catch hold of what makes it happen.
It will come.
--
But with a very simple movement, you can easily eliminate that from the consciousness; this movement can be formulated in an almost childlike way: You alone, Lord, You alone can act. You alone, Lord, You alone can act. And then that easing off (its relaxation, actually): you just let yourself melt, let yourself melt. This (the head) keeps still, it doesnt stir; you are Wholly in the sensation, you let yourself melt. And with a sense of boundlessness.
And no more distinctions.
--
You see, throughout my childhood and youth and the Whole beginning of my yoga, there was a sort of refusal in my being to use the word God, because of all the falsehood behind that word (Sri Aurobindo rid me of that; in the same way he got rid of all limitations, he rid me of that one too). But its not a word that comes to me spontaneously.
But Love. At the moment of contact, when it goes like this (gesture)at that moment something surges up.
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But whats strikingits connected to what I was telling you the other dayis that I was going to see some people Who were on the other side of a river. Ordinarily the river water wasnt clean and you needed a boat or something to cross; but yesterday I was in a special state I just sat down on the water and said, I am going there. And then, quite naturally, a current of pure, crystal clear water simply took me where I wanted to go. It was a very pleasant sensation I was sitting on the water, all smiles, and prrt! I was taken to the other side. Oh, very good! I thought. Will it continue? And so once again I said, I am going there (that is, back to this side) and prrt! Back I came.
Then someone came. There are symbolic people in these dreams; they seem to be made up of various parts of the beings of those around me, people Who have a particular relationship with me and bring a particular help to the Work. They are symbolic characters and always the same: one of them is tall and thin, some are small, there are young ones, old ones. I cant say its this person or that person, but rather that something IN this or that person is represented in these characters. And one of them is like a big brotherhe helps out in certain circumstances; if theres a boat, for instance, the big brother steers it. So he came up to me and said, Yes, I know the method, and began to try. Stop, for heavens sake! I said. Youll spoil everything; to make it work I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE. When he began trying to bring me across with his own methods, the water grew muddy again and I started to sink! No no no! I protested. Dont do that, thats notit at all! THAT has to (although I wasnt formulating it to myself, what I meant was the sense of a certain higher Will) THAT has to say: I WANT TO GO THERE; then it works.
After that, the experience changed, other things happened. But what I have just related is certainly part and parcel of that experience the other day [the two rooms, one inside the other], because the two were coexistent.1
--
And I know I was in a state of knowledge, because I suddenly knew Who certain people herepeople I have known for a very, very long timewere the reincarnations of (I had never tried to find that out, it just came). I was almost calling them by their former names. Yes, a special state, a state of knowledge but not spiritual knowledge: a knowledge related to the material world. In such visions, water always represents the vital. When everything is harmonious with the water, it means the vital is harmonious.
It was delightful (it happened around 1:30 in the afternoon): sitting on the water the way you would sit on a chair! And the water was so clear, crystal clear, transparent, rippled with tiny waves; the depths were dark blue, but the surface was perfectly clear, transparent, almost colorless. Then when the big brother came, boasting that he knew how to do it too, and would take me across, the water began to get muddy, as river water always isa dirty grayish yellow.
--
Immediately, as soon as I am in that state, theres an instantaneous will to spread it around as much as possible, so that all Who are close to me in some way, materially or spiritually, may benefit from it. Thats my very first movement. And its probably also how I catch the contagion of the wrong room!
Very probably. But after all, its necessary.
--
Yes, it has effectsfar and near. The people nearest to me dont seem to be the most receptive; but with them the action is much more complex and SOLIDI mean instead of a sudden experience thats almost, as I said, out of proportion to their normal condition, something is being progressively BUILT. I constantly find myself in the midst of constructions, immense constructions in the making. It was like that last night; I had to flounder about in something like cement, a kind of batter. And then I meet all sorts of people Who are also more or less symbolic, but Who sometimes have the features of a specific person. Its a Whole WORLD of circumstances, symbolic down to the most minute details. I remember everything, but I would have to describe a Whole world and an apparently uninteresting world, at that (outwardly uninteresting, I mean); but it gives me the key, from every point of view, to the present state of things, to the world now in the making.
Last night I spent almost all my time in such a building. And all the people Who help the work were symbolized there but its always a material help, either work or money or. I remember being particularly struck by one character last night. (Again, there were a lot of aggravations, but someone or something was always on the scene when I arrived and it all sorted itself outit was the exact opposite of the dreams I was talking about the other day: all the difficulties sorted themselves out when I arrived.) Then I came to a rather difficult place to cross (you had to flounder about on slippery scaffoldings) and suddenly, facing me, there was a man (of course, it was probably a symbol rather than a man, but it might really be someone physical). He was one of the workers, a master mason (when I woke up this morning, I thought of the symbolism of Freemasonry and wondered if it might give a clue to the experience). Nearby, people were coming to supervise, observe, direct, people Who thought themselves highly superior but they were never any help in solving practical problems! They were creating more problems than they were helping to solve. Anyway, this master mason appeared to be around fifty, with a beautiful facea workers face, beautiful and concentrated. There was a difficult place to cross, and he had worked the thing out very efficiently, with a lot of care. Then, when it was all done and I was able to go on my way, I felt a great surge of love go out to him, with neither gesture nor word and he received it, he felt and received it. His face lit up and he implored me, with wonderful humility, Never let me forget this moment, the most beautiful moment of my life. (I dont know what language he used because it didnt come to me in words.) It was such an intense experience. His humility, his receptivity, his response were all so beautiful and pure that when I woke upwhen I came out of the experience, at any rate I was left with a most delightful impression.
What he represents might be partly manifested by somebody here. A beautiful face a man around fifty. Or it may be symbolic: such characters are sometimes put together with features from several people, to make it very clear that they represent a state of consciousness and not an individual. Its far more often a state of consciousness than an individual.
--
You remember all the difficulties I encountered in those other visions at night. Well, this was very interesting because it was just the opposite: I was in a very complicated place full of obstacles and difficulties, but someone or something was always there when I arrivedeverything would get sorted out and I would go on my way. It all sorted itself out automatically the feeling of a power putting everything in order. And I remember when the mason arrived, just as I was facing that rather big obstacle, there was someone on my right (someone very official, wearing a dark coat) Who thought (the contact was through thought rather than words), Oh! Shes always calling on the workers for help instead of. And I answered, The workers are more efficient and their goodwill (all that business of caste, you know, or of society or social position). The workers have simple hearts, I said, they are efficient in their work and have more goodwill than the people Who think theyre so smart! It was funny. So this made two interesting experiences yesterday, one after the other.
The afternoon experience was very intriguing; I was busy working (organizing things for one of the departments, I no longer remember which) and then I said to the person I was with, Now I am going to my cousins place! When I was very young I had a cousin, the eldest son of one of my fathers brothers (he had a large family, such as you seldom see in France). This cousin became some kind of engineera civil engineer, maybe, or a mechanical engineer (he was an outstanding chemist). Anyway, this boy was very attracted to me. He went off to the war as an officer and caught some disease (I forget what) and died around 1915, at the time I returned to France. Well, in my experience yesterday afternoon, a certain family living HERE gave me exactly the same sensation I had had towards those people when I was young. And especially for this cousin (for the rest of the family it was more vague, like a background to the experience). I am going to their place, I said. They have a lovely estate here, just as they had a lovely estate in France before (they had Madame de Sevignes chateau at Sucy, near Parisa beautiful property). And it was all so concrete! It wasnt coming through the head; it wasnt a thought but a sensation. I have to go see him now, I said. And even as I was having my vision I was telling myself, You must be going crazy! Can they really be here in Pondicherry? This uncle with Whom I had only rather distant relations and this cousin I never saw much of, but Whom I knew to be very nice and very loyalAre they really here?! The sensation was most strange (the head wasnt functioning at all; it was a SENSATION). So off I went to see this cousin, and it was on the way to see him that I had the experience of crossing the river. And on the way back, after the discussion with the spiritual brother ( Whom I really told off: Get out of here! I dont need you!), after that, when I found myself back on the bank, I started collecting my consciousness again, telling myself, Look here now! Lets try to see clearly. And then I realized that the cousin Who died prematurely during the war had reincarnated in someone here. How strange, I thought. And the dates coincided.
But that is a singular state: there is no mental intervention at all; you live things POSITIVELY, just as you experience them physically, in the same way that this (Mother knocks on the table next to her) is physically a table. Its that kind of perception something positive. I positively said, I am going to my cousins place, and the relationship had an absolutely positive vibrationit wasnt at all something thought or even remembered: theres no remembering anything, its simply there, alive. A strange state. I have had it on several occasions, and when I have it I am aware that this must be the state people Who know what is happening and make predictions are inin this state there is no possibility of doubt. No thoughts intervenenone at all, not one. Absolutely nothing intellectual: simply certain vital-physical vibrations, and then you know. And you dont even wonder how you know; its not that kind of thingits self-evident. And since I was in that state when I saw the reincarnation of the cousin, I am perfectly sure of what I saw. And god knows (Mother laughs), when I came out of it and began to look at it all with my usual consciousness, I said to myself, My word! I would never have thought of such a thing! It was millions of miles from any thought of mine. Besides, I never used to think of that cousin; he was a fine boy but I never paid much attention to him, he had no place in my active consciousness.
Its fun.
--
Mother reemphasized: "Those Who use the mind to seek knowledge cannot enter the true room that is quite clear."
Several people combined in this single individual being.
0 1962-06-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In putting this question, Satprem was thinking in particular about Madame Theon, Who, rather than going to get her sandals, made them come to her.
What Mother seems to mean is that the hard state and the state with no angles coexist, like the two rooms or the two rivers.
This is what Mother calls "shifting the needle of consciousness": "When people Who are depressed or in despair come to see me," she once told Satprem, "all I have to do is slightly shift the needle of consciousness, and they go away happy. Out of habit, unfortunately, their state returns." (See Agenda I, February 25, 1958, p. 148)
***
0 1962-06-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Unexpectedly, this conversation led into the subject of Satprem's break with X, Who had been his guru for the past few years. Here then, briefly, is the story behind the rupture: No sooner had Satprem brought X to the Ashram than a swarm of disciples threw themselves at him. Conspicuous among these were the moneymen, the same wheelerdealers Who, eleven years later, after Mother's departure, were to reveal their ambitions in Auroville as well as Pondicherry. Satprem's somewhat straightforward manner soon got in the way of their schemes. He had a deep affection for X and when he repeatedly saw that these peoplespiritual scoundrels is the only word for themwere, in the hope of sowing confusion (for they always prosper best in confusion), bringing false reports to Mother of things X had supposedly said, he tried in all innocence to put X on his guard against the false reports and dishonest people Who were wronging him. But instead of listening to Satprem and understanding that he spoke out of love, Xwith all his Tantric power behindflew into a violent rage against him, as if he had been casting a slur on X's prestige. Satprem then broke with X, but not without sorrow.)
Anything new?
--
When I spoke to him, you know, when I went to see him, it was just after my japa and I was in a state of absolute inner calmabsolute, with not a. I simply felt he had to be helped, because he was saying things that were going against him. So I had this feeling, a very strong feeling of affection, but an affection that states things clearly and unemotionally. I was very calm when I said all that. I did get upset afterwards, but I was upset mainly because he immediately had such an incredible reaction! So then I was at a loss. But the way I put things to him. Really, if he had the least. But even a man Who has never done any yoga would have felt I was speaking from my heart, candidly. Even a man with no spiritual culture would have felt that. So how could he take it in such a way!
I am not sure he did.
--
Naturally he says he has kept all he felt and saw for me. He had said he wanted to remove his yantram2 from the Ashram, but in the end he left it. He writes to Z telling him he is working on his arm. He had a visit from A. and from that fellow M.that was comical! M., of course, had come to the Ashram to stay, but anyway hes looking for some kind of power, I sense that well enough. He had been frequenting some character Who had power but wasnt putting it to very good use, and he felt something similar with Xhe is instinctively in search of power. When he went down to see X, he may have felt a power coming into himso hes going away! I dont think he has any kind of attachment either to India or the Ashram: hes looking for power.
Thats how things stand.
You know, for me all this is nothing but surface drama, the Whole business means nothing. The only thing I did see clearly was more or less what you felt: that is, if X is to remain intimately linked with us, he had better learn not to tell tales or, to put it as favorably as possible, not to give voice to a certain unconscious part of his being.
Thats exactly it! I detest gossip, you know, so I never spread any, but he has told some people incredible things. I dont tell on him to you because I find it a kind of its something I dislike. Thats why I spoke to himin such a case, I always refer to something within, to the deep affection I had for him. I mean I was trying to help. I had NO OTHER kind of reaction. I saw him in a bad spot and tried to help him out, thats all.
--
You see, the trouble is hes a man Whose principles and education prevent him from believing in progress and transformation. He believes that if you fulfill the conditions you get the siddhi,3 and thats the end of it the goal is reached. He had already attained his goal before meeting us, and then he could have kept his distance, but he became intimately connected with something full of all kinds of difficulties (which we neither ignore nor call for), but its essentially a Power for progressan awesome force for progress. Well, when I saw that, I wondered, How can he possibly bear it? I thought he would keep his distance and not enter the atmosphere, but he did try to enterhe linked up with certain people, and particularly when he started meditating with me (he asked for it, not me), suddenly something responded. And that triggered the conflict in him. One part of his being has gone along with the Movement, while the other is left strandeddoesnt budge. That created a gap.
Of course, one has to be in a terribly superficial consciousness to react the way he did. He had a rather deep contact with you, and there were moments when he understood very well Who you arehe knows, he told me so. Consequently, had he truly been in a yogic state, then even if you had done something tactless or wrong, he would have just smiled! He would have said, Oh, hes just impetuous, but I dont mind.
But it wasnt like that, Mother! Im self-critical, god knows, and I have examined myself on this I wasnt tactless for a SECOND, I spoke very calmly. Very calmly. And not with the idea of accusing him. On the contrary, I was simply trying to tell him, Look, see whats happening. I have really done nothing wrong, to tell you the truth.
--
No, the Grace has made him an object of special attention, thrusting him into a world which, externally, was not his own. In a matter of a few years he has made a journey of several lifetimes, so it has been a little bit difficult. Truly, in a few years he has inwardly traveled many lifetimes. And he has had to face the necessity of an enormous progress, all the more difficult because he hadnt mentally accepted or foreseen it. So he doesnt understand any more, poor man! If I could only take him in my arms like a baby and say to him, My poor little dear, my dear little child and make him feel good, then all would be well. But its not possible theres a Whole spiritual construction. So I do it from a distance, wordlessly, in silence. But what gets through all that crust? I dont know! Over and over, I keep saying one thing: To divine Love, all human confusions and misunderstandings are unknown. There. Well, we will see. Wherever divine Love is present, human confusions and misunderstandings cannot exist, cannot enter.
Thats the only solution.
--
There is a way of looking at thingsan all too human waywhich sees me as VERY dangerous, very dangerous. It has been said time and time again. There was an Englishwoman Who came here after an unhappy love affair. She had come to India seeking consolation, and stumbled onto Pondicherry. It was right at the beginning (those English Conversations5 are things I said to her; I spoke in English and then translated itor rather said it all over again in French). And at the end of a years stay, this woman said to me (with such despair!), When I came here I was still able to love and feel goodwill towards people; but now that Ive become conscious, I am full of contempt and hatred! So I answered her, Go a bit farther on. Oh, no! she replied. Its enough for me as it is! And she added, You are a very dangerous person. Because I was making people conscious! (Mother laughs) But its true! Once you start, you have to go right to the end; you mustnt stop on the wayon the way, it gets to be hard going.
I dont do it on purpose.
--
That Whole way of seeing, feeling and reacting belongs really to another world. Really to another world to such a degree that if I had no regard for peoples peace of mind I would say, I dont know whether I am dead or alive. Because there is a life, a type of life vibration that is completely independent of. No, Ill put it another way: the way people ordinarily feel life, feel that they are alive, is intimately linked with a certain sensation they have of their bodies and of themselves. If you totally eliminate that sensation, the type of relation that allows people to say I am alive well, eliminate that, but then how can you say, I am alive, or I am not alive? The distinction NO LONGER EXISTS. Well, for me, it has been completely eliminated. That night April 12-13, it was definitively swept out of me. It has never come back. Its something that seems impossible now. So what they mean by I am alive is I cant say I am alive the way they doits something else entirely.
Better not keep thisin the end theyll be worrying about my sanity! (Mother laughs.)
--
Only one thing depends on the body: speech, expression Who knows? (Mother gazes at Satprem for a long time, as though she were considering an unknown possibility.)
Ah, thats enough for today!
--
If within that immobility I had a vision of the Mother, for instancea vision of the Motherif She were here well, yes, as though She knew me, was near me, was aware of my existence! A relationship, something. Well, that would change everything! If I could say to myself: close your eyes and you will see Herlike Ramakrishna, for example, he had that kind of relationship. I dont know, my Whole life would be changed, I would feel linked to SOMETHING. It wouldnt just be silence, silence, silence.
But all that belongs to a lower stage.
--
One of these wheelerdealers, Who spread rumors of X's alleged statements.
Yantram: Tantric symbol used to invoke or evoke gods, goddesses, or beings from worlds beyond.
--
The final reckoning for the others isn't known, but for Satprem this incident resulted in definitively and exclusively binding him to Mother, and in particular made him grasp the futility of tons of discipline that simply imprison you more solidly within a "realization"for all realizations are prisons, save only the Supramental, which is light as air. As for the wheelerdealers, Who in order to continue scheming in peace wanted to keep X apart from Mother and Satprem ... they seem to have succeeded in their devious intention.
Conversations with the Mother, 1929.
0 1962-06-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Pavitra was telling me the other day that, according to the latest scientific discoveries, matter in its present state can be immortal. Theres no reason that it couldnt change (for it changes all the time) enough to avoid decay. Nothing in matters composition stands in the way of its immortalityimmortality of form, I mean. If science simply follows its own course (and does not suddenly find itself confronted with something beyond its grasp), theres no reason it should not provide people Who dont have a mystical or occult turn of mind with a way to use the present substance in imperishable forms, without recourse to anything from other realms.
This is a great support for practical-minded people.
--
My own experience is going on in the tiniest details, details imperceptible in themselves but pointing in a certain direction that, increasingly, is this: when you take a wrong attitude, it immediately sets off all the disorders. Almost as if you shift into a wrong gear the image is too rigid, of course, its not really that but we can say that the Whole universe is rolling smoothly along and its only when you go like this or like that (Mother indicates a shifting of gears) that disorders arise. You can have a wrong attitude in a number of ways. Its like a slight shifting of gears: things still work (assuming the mechanism to be particularly supple) but they gratethey grate and therefore wear out and deteriorate and break down. But if they were in the true position, there would be no friction.
The sense of friction doesnt existit disappears, theres no friction. Friction results only from the wrong angle from something, a sort of shift.
0 1962-06-23, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a Whole range of things from the subconscient (vital and physical subconscient) quite new, things I didnt have before. It isnt my subconscient, its much more general, and it comes with what are practically revelations; I mean I suddenly see certain things concerning people (people I know extremely well, Whose inner beings I know very well) and I get a lot of surprises: Well! So that was there!
People, people lots of people.
--
Last night something like a big festival was being prepared, I dont know where maybe at the Ashram (a lot of Ashram people were there) but perhaps not the festival was of the Whole earth, and everybody was dressed up in white lace! Of course it was profoundly ridiculous! But it was all taken very seriously, it was very important.
What did the white lace represent? It was very important! And oh, the details! They were really funny.
0 1962-06-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is a period of study and observation. There is absolutely nothing to say. Its a Whole world of minute observations which, I hope, will lead me towards something more positive. More exactly, its a demonstration of the inadequacy of the usual methods when it comes to acting according to Truth and it goes on night and day.
Two nights ago, I had an experience I hadnt had for perhaps more than a year. A sort of concentration and accumulation of divine Energy in the cells of the body. During a certain period (I dont remember when), every night I had a kind of recharging of batteries through contact with universal forces; I had it again two nights ago, spontaneously. Then last night, when I wanted to look, to study, to understand how it worked, I was given a lavish demonstration of the inadequacy and utter uselessness of all processes of consciousness working through the mind. They are useless, they simply spoil the experience.
--
Before I met Sri Aurobindo they would come and come and come to me, night after night and sometimes during the daya mass of things! Afterwards I told Sri Aurobindo about it, and he explained to me that it was quite natural. And indeed, it is quite natural: with the present incarnation of the Mahashakti (as he described it in Savitri), whatever is more or less bound up with Her wants to take part, thats quite natural. And its particularly true for the vital: there has always been a preoccupation with organizing, centralizing, developing and unifying the vital forces, and controlling them. So theres a considerable number of vital beings, each with its own particular ability, Who have played their role in history and now return.
But this one [the tall white Being] is not of human origin; it was not formed in a human life: it is a being that had already incarnated, and is one of those Who presided over the formation of this present being [Mother]. But, as I said, I saw it: it was sexless, neither male nor female, and as intrepid as the vital can be, with a calm but absolute power. Ah, I found a very good description of it in one of Sri Aurobindos plays, when he speaks of the goddess Athena (I think its in Perseus, but I am not sure); she has that kind of its an almighty calm, and with such authority! Yes, its in Perseuswhen she appears to the Sea-God and forces him to retreat to his own domain. Theres a description there that fits this Being quite well.3
Besides, all the Greek gods are various aspects of a single thing: you see it this way, that way, that way, this way (turning her hand, Mother seems to show several facets of a single prism). But its simply one and the same thing.4
--
During the Whole time Sri Aurobindo was here, the four entities he speaks of, the four Aspects of the Mother,5 were always present. And I was constantly obliged to tell one or the other of them, Now keep calm, now, now, calm downthey were always inclined to intervene!
Did I ever tell you? Last time I went down for the pujas (was it last year or the year before? I remember nothing any more, you know: it all gets swept away, brrt!). Yes, it was the year before last, in 60, after that anniversary.6 (Durga used to come every year, two or three days before the Durga puja.) I was walking as usual and she came; that was when she made her surrender to the Supreme. Those divinities dont have the sense of surrender. Divinities such as Durga and the Greek gods (although the Greek gods are a bit dated now; but the gods of India are still very much alive!). Well, they are embodimentswhat you might almost call localizationsof something eternal, but they lack the sense of surrender to the Supreme. And while I was walking, Durga was therereally, it was beautiful! Durga, with that awesome power of hers, forever bringing the adverse forces to heel and she surrendered to the Supreme, to the point of no longer even recognizing the adverse forces: ALL is the Supreme. It was like a widening of her consciousness.
--
Everything that happened prior to the experience of April 13 has disappeared, as it were, and the usual functioning of the consciousness has been totally annulled; it is trying little by little to create a new mode of operationnot merely trying: it is in the PROCESS of doing so on a truer foundation; a truer foundation, or truer relations, or vibrations, or functionings (I dont know the right word for it: all these things at once). That presence the other day [the tall white Being] was nothing essentially newit had already intervened a good many times; and yet it was new, because the Whole functioning was new. Its like my experience two nights ago [the recharging of batteries], I had it for months on end; well, it was new because it was based on a new functioning. And each time (is it out of habit, or to make me understand, to make me see the difference?), each time the old functioning starts up, first of all I really feel I am losing the true contact, that the TRUE thing is escaping, and then I wonder how anybody can function like that without going insane! Thats what strikes me nowthis feeling of going insane! I mean it grates, it scrapes, it makes no senseit misses the point. It is not the TRUE thing, its beside the point. It tries to imitate something inimitable. And so I ask myself, What is this? Am I going crazy? Am I losing my faculties? And then I realize its not that at all! Above theres a state of immutable and UNSHAKABLE concentration, constant and almighty, and with but a drop of That, a spark of That, all problems are solved. Then I see clearly that its only a demonstration to make me see the inadequacy of the old, habitual functioningto really and truly convince me that its inadequate. Its rather hard to bear, actually. Last night I had it, I have seen it again in recent days: it lasts a few secondsjust enough for a satisfactory lesson! It may also happen to make me understand, but afterwards I wonder, Well, if everybody is in this state they dont know it, but its just terrible! And I realize that the LEAST thing, the slightest circumstance, is COMPLETELY distorted, instantly distorted by the way people work it out, the way they cause events to develop.
Thats an ever-present experience.
--
Its obviously a very good test of peoples trust, because without trust they would. For someone Who doesnt have my experience, it all appears like first-class incoherence! Oh, it can be explained (everything can be explained! Its not beyond all explanation), but it is a bit disconcerting at first glance.
Anyway.
--
No, I mean you are the one Who has to see and decide.
I would like you to write your book.
--
Tell her shes not the only one Who sees me this waymany do. When I see myself at night, thats how I see myself. Perhaps well, this (Mother touches her body) would have to yield. But when? I dont know.
Ageless something neither young nor old nor something totally different. And tall, strong.
0 1962-06-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding the last conversation and Mothers innumerable vital beings, Who reincarnated this time in a deluge:)
As a child, when I was around ten or twelve years old, I had some rather interesting experiences which I didnt understand at all. I had some history booksyou know, the textbooks they give you to learn history. Well, Id read and suddenly the book would seem to become transparent, or the printed words would become transparent, and Id see other words or even pictures. I hadnt the faintest idea what was happening to me! And it appeared so natural to me that I thought it was the same for everybody. But my brother and I were great chums (he was only a year and a half older), so I would tell him: They talk nonsense in history, you knowit is LIKE THIS; it isnt like that: it is LIKE THIS! And several times the corrections I got on one person or another turned out to be quite exact and detailed. And (I see it now I understood it later on) they were certainly memories. About some passages I would even say, How stupid! It was never that; THIS is what was said. It never happened like that; THIS is how it happened. And the book was simply open before me; I was just reading along like any other child and suddenly something would occur. It was something in me, of course, but I used to think it was in the book!
--
Twice I knew that it wasnt just images but something that had happened to ME, but it took another form. Once (when I was older, around twenty) it happened at Versailles. I had been invited to dinner by a cousin Who, with no warning, served me dry champagne during dinner and I drank it unsuspectingly (I Who never drank at all, neither wine nor liquor!). When I had to get up and cross the crowded room, oh, how very difficult it became, so difficult! Then we went to a place near the chateau, with a view of the Whole park. And I was staring at the park, when I saw I saw the park filling up with lights (the electric lights had vanished), with all kinds of lights, torches, lanterns and then crowds of people walking about in Louis XIV dress! I was staring at this with my eyes wide open, holding on to the balustrade to keep from falling down (I wasnt too sure of myself!). I was seeing it all, then I saw myself there, engrossed in conversation with some people (I dont remember now, but there were certain corrections here too). I mean I was a certain person (I dont remember Who) and there were those two brothers Who were sculptors (Mother vainly tries to recollect the names3) anyhow, all kinds of people were there and I saw myself talking, chatting. And I seem to have been sufficiently in control of myself, because when I related all that I had seen, there were some quite interesting details and corrections. That was one time.
There was another time at Blois. They make Anjou wine at Blois. It was the same story: I never drank anything but water or herb tea, but there was a luncheon and they served us sparkling Anjou wine it seemed so light! Afterwards (I was with an artist friend, we were all artists) we went to see the museum, and it appears I was sparkling with wit! And I suddenly halted in front of a painting by now lets see, Who was it? Cou? No, Clouet! Clouet: the princess one of the princesses.4 And I started making a few remarks out loud (it took me a little while to notice that people were listening). Look at this! I was saying. Just look at this! Look what this fellow has done to me! See what hes done to meit wasnt at all like that! It was actually a beautiful painting, but I was quite unhappy about it: Look what hes done to me! Lookhe made this like that, but thats not at all how it was, it was LIKE THIS! Details. And then I became aware (I wasnt too conscious physically) I realized that people were standing around listening, so I got a grip on myself, and left without a word. But I told my friends, Listen, it was definitely me! It was MY portrait, it was ME!
Almost all my memories of past lives came like that; the particular being reincarnated in me rises to the surface and begins acting as if it were all on its own! Once in Italy, when I was fifteen, it happened in an extraordinary way. But that time I did some research. I was in Venice with my mother and I researched in museums and archives, and I discovered my name, and the names of the other people involved. I had relived a scene in the Ducal Palace, but relived it in such a such an absolutely intense way (laughinga scene where I was being strangled and thrown into a canal!) that my mother had to hurry me out of there as fast as she could! But that experience I wrote down, so the exact memory has been kept (I didnt write down the other experiences, so the details have all faded away, but this one was noted, although I didnt include any names). The next morning I did some research and uncovered the Whole story. I told it all to Thon and Madame Thon, and he also had the memory of a past life there, during the same period. And as a matter of fact, I had seen a portrait there that was the spitting image of Thon! The portrait of one of the doges. It was absolutely (it was a Titian) absolutely Thon! HIS portrait, you know, as if it had just been done.5
All those kinds of things came to me just like that, without my looking for them, wanting them, or understanding them, without doing any sort of discipline, nothingit was absolutely spontaneous. And they just kept on coming and coming and coming.
--
One of them was in Murat, on the day of his great victory.6 It was a vital force that took possession of him and remained just for that victory; and it came into me, so I saw it all! I saw its entry into Murats body and the Whole battle scene I lived through it all. And once the battle was over, it left him. It was very interesting.
I wanted to clarify something. I dont know if Mona Lisa and Marguerite de Valois were your incarnations, but werent they contemporaries!?
--
But with this present incarnation of the Mahashakti. She is the Supremes first manifestation, creations first stride, and it was She Who first gave form to all those beings. Now, since her incarnation in the physical world, and through the position She has taken here in relation to the Supreme by incarnating in a human body, all the other worlds have been influenced, and influenced in an extremely interesting way.8 I have been in contact with all those gods, all those great beings, and for the most part their attitude has changed. And even with those Who didnt want to change, it has nonetheless influenced their way of being.
Human experience, with this direct incarnation of the Supreme,9 is ultimately a UNIQUE experience, which has given a new orientation to universal history. Sri Aurobindo speaks of thishe speaks of the difference between the Vedic era, the Vedic way of relating to the Supreme, and the advent of Vedanta (I think its Vedanta): devotion, adoration, bhakti, the God within.10 Well, this aspect of rapport with the Supreme could exist ONLY WITH MAN, because man is a special being in universal History the divine Presence is in him. And several of those great gods have taken human bodies JUST TO HAVE THAT.11 But not many of themthey were so fully aware of their own perfect independence and their almightiness that they didnt NEED anything (unlike man, you see, struggling to escape his slavery): they were absolutely free.
--
Of Whom Clement Marot said: "Body of a woman, heart of a man, and face of an angel."
Mother later tried to recall the names again, without success: "Those sculptor brothers did a lot of work on the palace at Versailles.... And I am not sure if it wasn't Mme de Montespan. I don't remember any more. This kind of thing should not be talked about vaguely. At the time it was precise, exact: I knew all the names, all the details, all the words but I never wrote it down and now it's gone. And these things shouldn't be told approximately.
0 1962-07-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For several hours afterwards I had a vision of this state of mind and found absolutely no need to make hypotheses (you see, Pavitra was speaking of hypothesizing the existence of different states of being). Its just as I told you: I have passed that stage; I dont need inner dimensions any more.1 And observing this materialistic state of mind, it occurred to me that, on the basis of their own experiments, they are bound to admit onenessat least the oneness of matter; and to admit oneness is enough to obtain the key to the Whole problem!
Once again it made me realize that this last experience [of April 13] may in reality have come to free me from ALL past knowledge, and that to live the Truth none of it is needed. I need neither all this terminology nor Sri Aurobindos terminology nor, of course, anyone elses; I dont need all these classifications, I dont need all sorts of experiences I need ONE experience, the one I have. And I have it in all things and in all circumstances: the experience of eternal, infinite, absolute Oneness manifesting in the finite, the relative and the temporal. And the process of change I am pursuing seems less and less of a problem; after looking like the ultimate problem, it doesnt seem to be one any more, because but that that cant be utteredit pleases Him to be that way, so He is that way.
--
They tried, fought, operated: no movement, nothing moved. Then one day they declared him dead (by the way, according to doctors, when the body dies the heart beats on faintly for a few seconds; then it stops and its all over). In his case, those faint beats (not strong enough to pump blood) continued for half an hour the kind of heartbeats typical of the trance state. (They all seem to be crassly ignorant! But anyway, it doesnt matter.) And they all said, even the doctors, Oooh, he must be a great yogi, this only happens to yogis! I have no idea what they mean by that. But I do know that although those heartbeats arent strong enough to pump blood through the body (thus putting the body into a cataleptic state), they do suffice to maintain life, and thats how yogis can remain in trance for months on end. Well, I dont know what type of doctors they are (probably very modern), but theyre ignorant of this fact. Anyway, according to them he had those pulsations for half an hour (normally they last a few seconds). All right. Hence their remarks. And he was here the Whole while, immutable. Then suddenly I felt a kind of shudder; I lookedhe was gone. I was busy and didnt note the time, but it was in the afternoon, thats all I know. Later I was told that they had decided to cremate him, and had done so at that time.
The violence of the accident had brutally exteriorized him, but when it happened he must have been thinking of me with trust. He came and didnt budgehe never knew what was happening to his body. He didnt know he was dead! And if.
--
Even when the body is in a thoroughly bad condition, it takes at least seven days for the life of the form to leave it. And for someone practicing yoga, this life is CONSCIOUS. So you burn people a few hours after the doctors have declared them dead, but the life of the form is every inch alive and, in those Who have practiced yoga, conscious.
It made me a bit.
--
People say, He has lost consciousness. They made this assumption in N.S.s case because there were no vital signs and the consciousness in the body was reduced to a minimum; there was still some left (because it did react!), but it was a bare minimum, without much reacting powerhe wasnt an accomplished yogi, after all, only an apprentice yogi. It would have been entirely different, for instance, and far more serious, for someone Who had practiced hatha yoga. But I mean to say that N.S. was here beside me, fully conscious, and could have moved on to another mode of manifestation without having to go through the throes of death thats not at all indispensable! Such is my experience, and I find it very important, tremendously important.
Besides, this is the first time it has happened. All those (like I.B., for example) Who were hurled violently out of their bodies through an accident have, after a time, become conscious again the consciousness gathers itself back together. But N.S.s consciousness never scattered, he never lost consciousness.
His time had come the instant the accident happened, I knew it was time for him to leave his body. His time had come, but the circumstances had been arranged (had been arrangedyou know, I dont say by Whom), circumstances had been arranged to derive the utmost benefit. This made me understand a lot of things. Practically speaking, you need a lot of experiences to learn anything.
But to learn, to profit from such experiences, one must already be on the other side. Up to that point [April 13], I had learned plenty of things, but I was learning them from this side of the fence. Now I am on the other side of the fence. Not entirely, but in large part, at least.
0 1962-07-07, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats good. From the standpoint of the Work, of what you create, of course its very good, very interesting; it needs to be said, it MUST be said. But is the gentleman Who wrote you that letter capable of understanding anything of it? Thats where I put a question mark.
Well see.
--
I see a psychological book. I mean, someone doing research on himself, seeking to understand. Not a philosophical but a psychological booksomeone Whos experimenting on himself.
What!
--
Keep on. Certain sections can be made into magazine articles for serious readers, the few Who like to think.
Just send it to your publisher, youll see. Well cut if they ask us to, and send what we cut to a magazine. Then theyll have their nice little storybook!1
--
This is what I am doing (gesture of applying pressure with the thumb). Who knows, anything can happen! Some rather interesting things are happening in the world, showing me that after all, there is a response there is a little response. I do this (same gesture with the thumb), and the effort isnt completely wasted. The events in Algeria2 and certain things in America too. Theres a response. And then (I think Ive told you this), some people are suddenly having experiences out of all proportion to their inner state, as though theyd been projected into a curve absorbing several lifetimes. This seems to be whats happening individually. People with the least bit of trust are gaining lifetimes perhaps many lifetimesand the world as well.
The work is getting done in double timeeven a lot more than double.
0 1962-07-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Maybe. Ah, that day [April 13] the Whole creation was colored waves, but not like the colors we have here, it was. Ah, that day!
For a good two hours it was absolutely. The world, the Whole creation seemed like a child at play, thats how I related to it. And what play!
It was smiling, easyVERY lovely, very easy.
--
This has never happened before, its brand-new. Before, there was always that Power transmitted through the higher mind (what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind); it was up there, dissolving, dispersing, changing, doing a Whole lot of work, without any difficulty, effortlessly (gesture above the head showing the tranquil, irresistible flowing of a stream), nothing to it. That was my constant, second-to-second action, everywhere, all the time, for everything that came to me. But THIS is completely, completely new. Its a sort of imposition, almost like an imposition on the PHYSICAL brain (I presume it must be for changing the brain cells). And I am allowed to do only one thing (Mother grips the mental construction presented to her); its right in front of me like this and wont leave me, it clings like a leech, stock-still. So I have to bring in the supreme, divine Vibration, the Vibration I experienced the other day [April 13], and hold it steadily (sometimes it takes quite a while) until all is hushed in a divine silence.
(silence)
--
This is the difference, the radical difference, since the experience of [April 13]: there is nothing but the Lord. All the rest what is it? No more than a habit of speaking (not even a habit of thinking, thats all gone), a habit of speaking; so the less one speaks, the happier one is. Otherwise nothing. And what else could there be? It is He Who sees, He Who wills, He Who acts.
Then everything comes spontaneously, easily, with such great simplicity.
0 1962-07-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother listens to Satprem read a passage from the last conversation in which she says: This is the radical difference since the experience of April 13: there is nothing but the Lord. All the rest what is it? No more than a habit of speaking (not even a habit of thinking, thats all gone). Otherwise nothing. And what else could there be? It is He Who sees, He Who wills, He Who acts.)
You know, theres the same vibration here as in to die unto death. Its something yes, I think we could say it is His Presence His creative Power. It is a special vibration. Dont you feel something like like a pure superelectricity?
--
And simultaneously there is an automatic perception of timeclock timewhich is rather curious (everything is regulated by the comings and goings of the people around me, you see: such a thing at this time, such a thing at that time), I dont need to hear the clock I am warned just before it strikes. I repeat one part of the japa in a particular way while lying down, because the Power is greater (these arent meditations, they are actions), and another part while walking. So I stay stretched out for a certain time, I walk for a certain time, and at a fixed hour this one goes, another comes, and so on. But none of them are people; I dont tell them so, but theyre not people: they are movements of the Lord. And its extremely interestingone of the Lords movements will have this particular character, another movement will have a different type of vibration, and they all harmonize very nicely into a Whole. But I know what time it is just before the clock strikes: six oclock, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, like that. Not with the words six, seven, but: its time, its time, its time. And along with thisthis clockwork precision I have that other notion of time which is quite different, its. Although its a very rigid convention, our time is a living formation with its own living power here in the world of action. The other time is the rhythm of consciousness. So according to the intensity of the Presence (theres a concentration and an expansion, I mean), according to this pulsationwhich can vary, its not regular and mechanicalwalking around the room takes either no time at all, or else an ENORMOUS amount of time. But this doesnt interfere with the other time, theres no contradiction. Our time is on a different plane, something far more external; but it has its usefulness and its own law, and the one doesnt hinder the other.4
And its gradually becoming foreseeable that.5
--
For a while yesterday I was put in contact with the way people think, how they think. And I saw that I must be very careful; it is better to keep silent or theyll think Ive finally gone off the deep end! You know: She is getting old, theres arteriosclerosis of the brain, she is becoming a little silly, reverting to a second childhood. I saw this, its really funny. I saw, I was shown a Whole way of thinking. Ah, they think theyre intelligent, they think they know a lot!
Anyhow.
--
Looking at it now (1979), this "dream" doesn't seem to be from the subconscient but actually from the subtle physical, with that Whole crowd of people relentlessly assailing Mother and exhausting her (and pushing Satprem away, besides). But DESPITE the crowd, Satprem crossed through and came up "very close" to Mother, which concurs with her vision. "Dressed as a Sannyasin" means in his essentiality, divested of day-to-day material circumstances.
When one goes out of the body (and probably at death), there is always the impression of moving "upwards," or "inwards," which means into a deeper plane (either way, it is simply the expression of a change of dimension). What is striking about Mother's experience is this LEVEL movement, indicating that she had not left the physical world. We are faced with a strange enigma: a physical world WITHIN the physical worldano ther world, or the same one lived differently? A physical world where death no longer exists: one has died unto death. The world to come?...
--
Ever since Einstein's Theory of Relativity, we have known that such an experience of time's relative nature is "physically" feasible. We need only consider the example of time aboard a spaceship approaching the speed of light: time "slows down," and the same event will take less time aboard the spaceship than on earth. In this instance, speed is what makes time slow down. In Mother's experience (which is every bit as "physical"), the "intensity of the Presence" seems to be the origin of time change. In other words, consciousness is what makes time slow down. Thus we are witnessing two experiences with identical physical results, but formulated in different languages. In one, we speak of "speed," in the other of "consciousness." But what is speed, after all?... (Moreover, the implications of this "language" difference are quite colossal, for it would indeed be simpler to press on a "consciousness button" than on an accelerator that had to take us to the speed of light.) Speed is a question of distance. Distance is a question of two legs or two wings: it implies a limited phenomenon or a limited being. When we say "at the speed of light," we imagine our two legs or our two wings moving very, very fast. And all the phenomena of the universe are seen and conceived of in relation to these two legs, these two wings or this rocketship they are creations of our present-day biped biology. But for a being (a supramental being, of the future biology) containing everything within himself, Who is immediately everywhere, without distance, where is "speed"? ... The only "speed of light" is biped. Speed increases and time slows down, they say. The future biology says: consciousness intensifies and time slows down or ceases to existdistances are abolished, the body doesn't age. And the world's Whole physical cage collapses. "Time is a rhythm of consciousness," says Mother. We change rhythm and the physical world changes. Might this be the Whole problem of transformation?
Asked later about this unfinished sentence, Mother said, "I stopped because it was an impression and not a certainty. We'll talk about it again later." Was Mother hinting at a stage when she would live in both times simultaneously?...
0 1962-07-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But now the body the body itself, its very own selffeels it is WITHIN things or WITHIN people or WITHIN an action. There are no more limits, none of this (Mother touches the skin of her hands as if all separation had disappeared). Take this example: someone accidentally bumps me (it does happen) with an object or a part of his body. Well, it is NEVER something external: it happens INSIDE the bodys consciousness is much larger than my body. Yesterday, the table leg bumped my foot; so there was the ordinary outward reaction (it operates automatically and in a curious way the body jumped), and then the body-consciousness now I am speaking of the body-consciousness saw that an unexpected and involuntary collision of two objects had taken place INSIDE ITSELF. And it also saw that if it made a certain movement of concentration at that particular spot, inside itself, some pain or damage would result; but if it made the other movement of (how shall I put it?) of union, of abolishing all separation (which it can do very well), well, then the results of the blow would be annulled. And thats what happened, I did it. I was simply sitting down, and I let my body cope with the Whole thing (while I watched with keen interest); and I noticed it really did feel the blow inside and not outsideit wasnt that something from outside had struck it, but that there had been an unexpected, or rather an unforeseen and involuntary collision of two things inside itself. And I clearly followed how the body made a more complete movement of identification (you see, someone with the sense of separation had moved the table, so the sense of separation accompanied the blow, and then of course there was all the regret,2 and so on and so forth); well, the body simply went into its usual state where theres no sense of separation, and the effect vanished instantaneously. Had I been asked, Where were you hit, what spot?, I couldnt have told, I dont know. All I know, because of words I heard spoken, is that the table leg bumped into my foot. But where? I cant say; I couldnt have said even five minutes after the incidentit had utterly disappeared, and disappeared through a VOLUNTARY movement.
This body-consciousness has a will; it is constantly, constantly calling upon the Lords will: Lord, take possession of this, take possession of that, take. Theres no question of taking possession of the will, that was done ages ago, but: Take possession of these cells, those cells, this, that. It is the BODYS aspiration. Well, the blow wasnt caused by this will acting in the body; the blow didnt come directly from the body, but from something that had slipped in through an unconscious element; and the body simply erased, or absorbed, digested this unconsciousness and the thing vanished without a trace!
--
"The regret of the person Who bumped me," Mother specified. "This person's state of consciousness entered the body along with the blow. And this kind of regret for having given a blow was an ego movement. All these vibrations accompanied the blow and that's what the body had to annul in order to annul the result."
***
0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
First, about your yoga. You wish to give me the charge of your yoga and I am willing to take it, but that means to give its charge to Him Who is moving by His divine Shakti [Energy], whether secretly or openly, both you and me. But you must know that the necessary result of this will be that you will have to walk in the special path which He has given to me, the path which I call the path of the Integral Yoga. What I began with, what Lele1 gave me, was a seeking for the path, a circling in many directionsa first touch, a taking up, a handling and scrutiny of this or that in all the old partial yogas, some sort of complete experience of one and then the pursuit of another.
Afterwards, when I came to Pondicherry, this unsteady condition came to an end. The Guru of the world Who is within us then gave me complete directions for my pathits complete theory, the ten limbs of the body of this Yoga. These past ten years He has been making me develop it in experience, and this is not yet finished. It may take another two years, and as long as it is not finished I doubt if I shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my yoga siddhi [realization], except indeed one part of it, and that is action. The centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the Whole earth.
I shall write and tell you afterwards what this way of yoga is. Or if you come here I shall speak to you about it. In this matter the spoken word is better than the written. At present I can only say that its root-principle is to make a harmony and unity of complete knowledge, complete works and complete Bhakti [Devotion], to raise all this above the mind and give it its complete perfection on the supramental level of Vijnana [Gnosis]. This was the defect of the old yoga the mind and the Spirit it knew, and it was satisfied with the experience of the Spirit in the mind. But the mind can grasp only the divided and partial; it cannot Wholly seize the infinite and indivisible. The minds means to reach the infinite are Sannyasa [Renunciation], Moksha [Liberation] and Nirvana, and it has no others. One man or another may indeed attain this featureless Moksha, but what is the gain? The Brahman, the Self, God are ever present. What God wants in man is to embody Himself here in the individual and in the community, to realize God in life.
The old way of yoga failed to bring about the harmony or unity of Spirit and life: it instead dismissed the world as Maya [Illusion] or a transient Play. The result has been loss of life-power and the degeneration of India. As was said in the Gita, These peoples would perish if I did not do worksthese peoples of India have truly gone down to ruin. A few sannyasins and bairagis [renunciants] to be saintly and perfect and liberated, a few bhaktas [lovers of God] to dance in a mad ecstasy of love and sweet emotion and Ananda [Bliss], and a Whole race to become lifeless, void of intelligence, sunk in deep tamas [inertia]is this the effect of true spirituality? No, we must first attain all the partial experiences possible on the mental level and flood the mind with spiritual delight and illumine it with spiritual light, but afterwards we must rise above. If we cannot rise above, to the supramental level, that is, it is hardly possible to know the worlds final secret and the problem it raises remains unsolved. There, the ignorance which creates a duality of opposition between the Spirit and Matter, between truth of spirit and truth of life, disappears. There one need no longer call the world Maya. The world is the eternal Play of God, the eternal manifestation of the Self. Then it becomes possible to fully know and fully realize Godto do what is said in the Gita, To know Me integrally. The physical body, the life, the mind and understanding, the supermind and the Ananda these are the spirits five levels. The higher man rises on this ascent the nearer he comes to the state of that highest perfection open to his spiritual evolution. Rising to the Supermind, it becomes easy to rise to the Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle.
This is no easy change to make. After these fifteen years I am only now rising into the lowest of the three levels of the Supermind and trying to draw up into it all the lower activities. But when this siddhi will be complete, then I am absolutely certain that through me God will give to others the siddhi of the Supermind with less effort. Then my real work will begin. I am not impatient for success in the work. What is to happen will happen in Gods appointed time. I have no hasty or disorderly impulse to rush into the field of work in the strength of the little ego. Even if I did not succeed in my work I would not be shaken. This work is not mine but Gods. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move.
I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not the real transformation. However this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras [old habitual tendencies], extracting their essence and with it fertilizing the soil. At first it was the time of VedantaAdwaita, Sannyasa, Shankaras Maya and the rest. It is now the turn of Vaishnava DharmaLila, love, the intoxication of emotional experience. All this is very old, unfitted for the new age and will not endure for such excitement has no capacity to last. But the merit of the Vaishnava Bhava [emotional enthusiasm] is that it keeps a connexion between God and the world and gives a meaning to life; but since it is a partial bhava the Whole connexion, the full meaning is not there. The tendency to create sects which you have noticed was inevitable. The nature of the mind is to take a part and call it the Whole and exclude all other parts. The Siddha [illuminated being] Who brings the bhava, although he leans on its partial aspect, yet keeps some knowledge of the integral Whole, even though he may not be able to give it form. But his disciples do not get that knowledge precisely because it is not in a form. They are tying up their little bundles, let them. The bundles will open of themselves when God manifests himself fully. These things are the signs of incompleteness and immaturity. I am not disturbed by them. Let the force of spirituality play in the country in whatever way and in as many sects as may be. Afterwards we shall see. This is the infancy or the embryonic condition of the new age. It is a first hint, not even the beginning.
The peculiarity of this yoga is that until there is siddhi above the foundation does not become perfect. Those Who have been following my course had kept many of the old samskaras; some of them have dropped away, but others still remain. There was the samskara of Sannyasa, even the wish to create an Aravinda Math [Sri Aurobindo monastery]. Now the intellect has recognized that Sannyasa is not what is wanted, but the stamp of the old idea has not yet been effaced from the prana [breath, life energy]. And so there was next this talk of remaining in the midst of the world, as a man of worldly activities and yet a man of renunciation. The necessity of renouncing desire has been understood, but the harmony of renunciation of desire with enjoyment of Ananda has not been rightly seized by the mind. And they took up my Yoga because it was very natural to the Bengali temperament, not so much from the side of Knowledge as from the side of Bhakti and Karma [Works]. A little knowledge has come in, but the greater part has escaped; the mist of sentimentalism has not been dissipated, the groove of the sattwic bhava [religious fervor] has not been broken. There is still the ego. I am not in haste, I allow each to develop according to his nature. I do not want to fashion all in the same mould. That which is fundamental will indeed be one in all, but it will express itself in many forms. Everybody grows, forms from within. I do not want to build from outside. The basis is there, the rest will come.
What I am aiming at is not a society like the present rooted in division. What I have in view is a Samgha [community] founded in the spirit and in the image of its oneness. It is with this idea that the name Deva Samgha has been given the commune of those Who want the divine life is the Deva Samgha. Such a Samgha will have to be established in one place at first and then spread all over the country. But if any shadow of egoism falls over this endeavor, then the Samgha will change into a sect. The idea may very naturally creep in that such and such a body is the one true Samgha of the future, the one and only centre, that all else must be its circumference, and that those outside its limits are not of the fold or even if they are, have gone astray, because they think differently.
You may say, what need is there of a Samgha? Let me be free and live in every vessel; let all become one without form and let whatever must be happen in the midst of that vast formlessness. There is a truth there, but only one side of the truth. Our business is not with the formless Spirit alone; we have also to direct the movement of life. And there can be no effective movement of life without form. It is the Formless that has taken form and that assumption of name and form is not a caprice of Maya. Form is there because it is indispensable. We do not want to rule out any activity of the world as beyond our province. Politics, industry, society, poetry, literature, art will all remain, but we must give them a new soul and a new form.
--
We can mix with all, but in order to draw all into the true path, keeping intact the spirit and form of our ideal. If we do not do that we shall lose our direction and the real work will not be done. If we remain individually everywhere, something will be done indeed; but if we remain everywhere as parts of a Samgha, a hundred times more will be done. As yet that time has not come. If we try to give a form hastily, it may not be the exact thing we want. The Samgha will at first be in unconcentrated form. Those Who have the ideal will be united but work in different places. Afterwards, they will form something like a spiritual commune and make a compact Samgha. They will then give all their work a shape according to the demand of the spirit and the need of the agenot a bound and rigid form, not an achalayatana3, but a free form which will spread out like the sea, mould itself into many waves and surround a thing here, overflood a thing there and finally take all into itself. As we go on doing this there will be established a spiritual community. This is my present idea. As yet it has not been fully developed. All is in Gods hands; whatever He makes us do, that we shall do.
Now let me discuss some particular points of your letter. I do not want to say much in this letter about what you have written as regards your yoga. We shall have better occasion when we meet. To look upon the body as a corpse is a sign of Sannyasa, of the path of Nirvana. You cannot be of the world with this idea. You must have delight in all thingsin the Spirit as well as in the body. The body has consciousness, it is Gods form. When you see God in everything that is in the world, when you have this vision that all this is Brahman, Sarvamidam Brahma, that Vasudeva is all thisVasudevah sarvamiti then you have the universal delight. The flow of that delight precipitates and courses even through the body. When you are in such a state, full of the spiritual consciousness, you can lead a married life, a life in the world. In all your works you find the expression of Gods delight. So far I have been transforming all the objects and perceptions of the mind and the senses into delight on the mental level. Now they are taking the form of the supramental delight. In this condition is the perfect vision and perception of Sachchidananda.
--
Let me tell you in brief one or two things about what I have long seen. My idea is that the chief cause of the weakness of India is not subjection nor poverty, nor the lack of spirituality or dharma [ethics] but the decline of thought-power, the growth of ignorance in the motherl and of Knowledge. Everywhere I see inability or unwillingness to thinkthought-incapacity or thought-phobia. Whatever may have been in the middle ages, this state of things is now the sign of a terrible degeneration. The middle age was the night, the time of the victory of ignorance. The modern world is the age of the victory of Knowledge. Whoever thinks most, seeks most, labors most, can fathom and learn the truth of the world, and gets so much more Shakti. If you look at Europe, you will see two things: a vast sea of thought and the play of a huge and fast-moving and yet disciplined force. The Whole Shakti of Europe is in that. And in the strength of that Shakti it has been swallowing up the world, like the tapaswins [ascetics] of our ancient times, by Whose power even the gods of the world were terrified, held in suspense and subjection. People say Europe is running into the jaws of destruction. I do not think so. All these revolutions and upsettings are the preconditions of a new creation.
Then look at India. Except for some solitary giants, everywhere there is your simple man, that is, the average man Who does not want to think and cannot think, Who has not the least Shakti but only a temporary excitement. In India, you want the simple thought, the easy word. In Europe they want the deep thought, the deep word; there even an ordinary laborer or artisan thinks, wants to know, is not satisfied with surface things but wants to go behind. But there is still this difference: there is a fatal limitation in the strength and thought of Europe. When it comes into the spiritual field, its thought-power can no longer move ahead. There Europe sees everything as riddlenebulous metaphysics, yogic hallucination. They rub their eyes as in smoke and can see nothing clear. Still, some effort is being made in Europe to surmount even this limitation. We already have the spiritual sensewe owe it to our forefa thersand Whoever has that sense has at his disposal such Knowledge and Shakti as with one breath might blow away all the huge power of Europe like a blade of grass. But to get that Shakti one must be a worshiper of Shakti. We are not worshipers of Shakti. We are worshipers of the easy way. But Shakti is not to be had by the easy way. Our forefa thers dived into a sea of vast thought and gained a vast Knowledge and established a mighty civilization. As they went on in their way, fatigue and weariness came upon them. The force of thought diminished and with it also the strong current of Shakti. Our civilization has become an achalayatana [prison], our religion a bigotry of externals, our spirituality a faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of religious intoxication. And so long as this sort of thing continues, any permanent resurgence of India is improbable
In Bengal this weakness has gone to the extreme. The Bengali has a quick intelligence, emotional capacity and intuition. He is foremost in India in all these qualities. All of them are necessary but they do not suffice. If to these there were added depth of thought, calm strength, heroic courage and a capacity for and pleasure in prolonged labor, the Bengali might be a leader not only of India, but of mankind. But he does not want that, he wants to get things done easily, to get knowledge without thinking, the fruits without labor, siddhi by an easy sadhana [discipline]. His stock is the excitement of the emotional mind. But excess of emotion, empty of knowledge, is the very symptom of the malady. In the end it brings about fatigue and inertia. The country has been constantly and gradually going down. The life-power has ebbed away. What has the Bengali come to in his own country? He cannot get enough food to eat or clothes to wear, there is lamentation on all sides, his wealth, his trade and commerce, his lands, his very agriculture have begun to pass into the hands of others. We have abandoned the sadhana of Shakti and Shakti has abandoned us. We do the sadhana of Love, but where Knowledge and Shakti are not, there Love does not remain, there narrowness and littleness come, and in a little and narrow mind there is no place for Love. Where is Love in Bengal? There is more quarreling, jealousy, mutual dislike, misunderstanding and faction there than anywhere else even in India which is so much afflicted by division.
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You say that what is needed is maddening enthusiasm, to fill the country with emotional excitement. In the time of the Swadeshi [fight for independence, boycott of English goods] we did all that in the field of politics, but what we did is all now in the dust. Will there be a more favorable result in the spiritual field? I do not say there has been no result. There has been. Any movement will produce some result, but for the most part in terms of an increase of possibility. This is not the right method, however, to steadily actualize the thing. Therefore I no longer wish to make emotional excitement or any intoxication of the mind the base. I wish to make a large and strong equanimity the foundation of the yoga. I want established on that equality a full, firm and undisturbed Shakti in the system and in all its movements. I want the wide display of the light of Knowledge in the ocean of Shakti. And I want in that luminous vastness the tranquil ecstasy of infinite Love, Delight and Oneness. I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, Who will be the instruments of God. I have no faith in the customary trade of the guru. I do not wish to be a guru. If anybody wakes and manifests from within his slumbering godhead and gets the divine lifebe it at my touch or at anothersthis is what I want. It is such men that will raise the country.
You must not think from all this lecture that I despair of the future of Bengal. I too hope, as they say, that this time a great light will manifest itself in Bengal. Still I have tried to show the other side of the shield, where the fault is, the error, the deficiency. If these remain, the light will not be a great light and it will not be permanent.
--
Lele, a tantric guru Sri Aurobindo met in 1908, Who gave him the realization of mental silence and Nirvana.
Rama, the divine Avatar Who killed the demon Ravana with the help of Hanuman and the other monkeys.
A prison; a place where everything is regimented down to the last detail.
0 1962-07-25, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But whenever there was unpleasantness with my relatives, with playmates or friends, I would feel all the nastiness or bad willall sorts of pretty ugly things that came (I was rather sensitive, for I instinctively nurtured an ideal of beauty and harmony, which all the circumstances of life kept denying) so whenever I felt sad, I was most careful not to say anything to my mother or father, because my father didnt give a hoot and my mother would scold me that was always the first thing she did. And so I would go to my room and sit down in my little armchair, and there I could concentrate and try to understand in my own way. And I remember that after quite a few probably fruitless attempts I wound up telling myself (I always used to talk to myself; I dont know why or how, but I would talk to myself just as I talked to others): Look here, you feel sad because so-and-so said something really disgusting to you but why does that make you cry? Why are you so sad? Hes the one Who was bad, so he should be crying. You didnt do anything bad to him. Did you tell him nasty things? Did you fight with her, or with him? No, you didnt do anything, did you; well then, you neednt feel sad. You should only be sad if youve done something bad, but. So that settled it: I would never cry. With just a slight inward movement, or something that said, Youve done no wrong, there was no sadness.
But there was another side to this someone: it was watching me more and more, and as soon as I said one word or made one gesture too many, had one little bad thought, teased my brother or whatever, the smallest thing, it would say (Mother takes on a severe tone), Look out, be careful! At first I used to moan about it, but by and by it taught me: Dont lamentput right, mend. And when things could be mendedas they almost always could I would do so. All that on a five to seven-year-old childs scale of intelligence.
--
Next came the period of learning and developing, but on an ordinary mental levelschool years.1 Curiosity made me want to learn to read. Did I tell you how it happened? When I was around seven, just under seven, my brother, Who was eighteen months older, used to bring big pictures home from school with him (you know, pictures for children with captions at the bottom; theyre still used nowadays) and he gave me one of them. Whats written there? I asked. Read it! he said. Dont know how, I replied. Then learn! All right, I told him, show me the letters. He brought me an A-B-C book. I knew it within two days and on the third day I started reading. Thats how I learned. Oh-oh, they used to say, this child is backward! Seven years old and she still cant readdisgraceful! The Whole family fretted about it. And then lo and behold, in about a week I knew what should have taken me years to learnit made them think twice!
Then, school years. I was a very bright student, always for the same reason: I wanted to understand. I wasnt interested in learning things by heart like the others did I wanted to understand them. And what a memory I had, a fantastic memory for sounds and images! I had only to read a poem aloud at night, and the next morning I knew it. And after I had studied or read a book and someone mentioned a passage to me, I would say, Ah, yes thats on page so and so. I would find the page. Nothing had faded, it was all still fresh. But this is the ordinary period of development.
Then at a very young age (about eight or ten), along with my studies I began to paint. At twelve I was already doing portraits. All aspects of art and beauty, but particularly music and painting, fascinated me. I went through a very intense vital development during that period, with, just like in my early years, the presence of a kind of inner Guide; and all centered on studies: the study of sensations, observations, the study of technique, comparative studies, even a Whole spectrum of observations dealing with taste, smell and hearinga kind of classification of experiences. And this extended to all facets of life, all the experiences life can bring, all of themmiseries, joys, difficulties, sufferings, everythingoh, a Whole field of studies! And always this presence within, judging, deciding, classifying, organizing and systematizing everything.
Then conscious yoga made a sudden entry into the picture when I met Thon; I must have been about twenty-one. Lifes orientation changed, a Whole series of experiences took place, with the development of the vital giving interesting occult results.
Then, a period of intensive mental development, mental development of the most complete type: a study of all the philosophies, all the conceptual juggling, in minute detaildelving into systems, getting a grasp on them. Ten years of intensive mental studies leading me to Sri Aurobindo.
--
Some receive it from above; for others, it rises from below (gesture to the base of the spine). As I once told you, the old system always proceeds from below upwards, while Sri Aurobindo pulls from above downwards. This becomes very clear in meditation (well, in yoga, in yogic experience): for those Who follow the old system, its invariably the kundalini at the base [of the spine] rising from center to center, center to center, until the lotus (in an ironic tone) bursts open here gesture at the crown of the head). With Sri Aurobindo, it comes like this (gesture of descending Force) and then settles here (above the head); it enters, and from there it comes down, down, down, everywhere, to the very bottom, and even below the feet the subconscientand lower still, the inconscient.
Its the Shakti. He said, you know (I am still translating it), that the shakti drawn up from below (this is what happens in the individual process) is already what could be called a veiled shakti (it has power, but it is veiled). While the Shakti drawn down from above is a PURE Shakti; and if it can be brought down carefully and slowly enough so that it isnt (how shall I put it?) polluted or, in any case, obscured as it enters matter, then the result is immediately much better. As he has explained, if you start out with this feeling of a great power in yourself (because its always a great power no matter where it awakens), theres inevitably a danger of the ego meddling in. But if it comes pure and you are very careful to keep it pure, not to rush the movement but let it purify as it descends, then half the work is done.
--
Generally speaking, those Who practice yoga have either a fully developed, independent psychic being which has taken birth again to do the Divines work, or else a psychic being in its last incarnation wanting to complete its development and realize itself.
This is what aspires, this is what has the contact.
So, when youre told become conscious of your psychic being, its for the being formed by external Nature to contact the divine Presence through the psychic being. Then the psychic takes charge of the Whole being; in fact, it is the inner Guide. Well, when I was a little child, this person (which wasnt a person, but an expression of a certain consciousness and will) was actually the psychic presence; there was something else behind, but thats a rather special case. And what happened to me happens to everyone Whose psychic being has deliberately incarnated: the psychic being guides your life, and if you let it act freely, it arranges ALL circumstancesits truly wonderful! I have seennot only for myself but for so many people Who also had conscious psychic beings that everything is arranged with a view to not at all your personal egoistic satisfaction, but your ultimate progress and realization. And all circumstances of life, even those you call disastrous, are there to lead you where you have to go as swiftly as possible.
Yours is more than a psychic being. As I have told you, your psychic being is accompanied by something which has come for a special purpose, with a particular intellectual powera luminous, conscious powerwhich has come from regions higher than the mind, regions Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind, to do a special work. It is here (gesture enveloping the chest and head) and, along with the psychic, its trying to organize everything. This, in your psychic, is what you are feeling. It must have great power. Dont you feel a kind of luminous force?
--
I have had a few brief moments of this kind of experience; but even then it seemed rather paltry. Paltry, a Whole realm eludes you. I remember the period when I used to sit down at the organ at midnight on December 31, without the least notion of what I was going to play or sing, and I would let the Force comeit would play, then the sound, the voice came, and then in the voice, the words. I never wrote anything in advance. And its because people began noting down what I was saying (of course they got it all mixed up) that I started writing it down beforehand; that was much later, when I stopped coming at midnight. But in the early days, long, long ago when Sri Aurobindo was here, thats how it was; I didnt know what I was going to play or what I would say. And the sound came first, then the voice, and then in the voice, the wordslike something condensing, concretizing.
It was quite powerful, but incomplete. Incomplete.
--
And it was he Who did it, entirely. I didnt even ask him, there was no aspiration, nothing (there were my previous efforts; I knew it had to come, thats all). But on that day I hadnt mentioned it to him, I wasnt thinking about it, I wasnt doing anythingjust sitting there. And outwardly he seemed to be fully engrossed in his conversation about this and that and what was going to happen in the world.
Thats the real way.
--
The former governor of "French India" with Whom Satprem came to work in the Pondicherry government. Actually, Satprem most probably saw Sri Aurobindo in 1946 and not in '48.
***
0 1962-07-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From 1911 or 12, up to 1914, there was the Whole series of inner experiences, psychic experiences, preparing me to meet Sri Aurobindo (so this ran parallel to my mental development).
In practice, these periods overlap, but approximately every twelve years a particular type of development predominated, in this order: consciousness first, then the vital (mainly from the aesthetic point of view, but a study of sensations as well), then the mind, then spiritual realization. And in between the vital and mental phases came the brief period of occultism, serving both as a transition and a basis for spiritual development.
0 1962-08-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(With an ironic smile) Ive made a conscious effort not to! Things are progressing, but they wont be interesting till a Whole curve is completed. Its better not to talk in the middle of it. So read to me.
***
--
Interestingly enough, these last few days I have been making a sort of detailed study of the various kinds of vibrations, how they approach you and enter the various centers. I dont know how to explain itcertain differences between vibrations resemble differences in tastes. Theres a Whole gamut, you see, all vibrations, nothing but vibrations, and the differences between them resemble differences in taste or color or intensity, perhaps differences in force as wellessentially, of course, they are differences in quality.
Ive been observing all this in a neuro-physical realm, subtle-physical, that is but its still physical and in a complete mental silence where all judgments (you know, judgments) have disappeared, along with a certain way of observing things. Thats why I cant talk about it.
--
Formerly (I mean before last April 13), the process was different; now it has totally changed. This body is nothing but a field of experience, its no longer an individualitynot at all, at all, at all. But its a very willing field of experience. And the experience is going on in a particular realm by day and in another by nightits beginning to clarify the Whole subconscient. From this angle, there is a very rapid progress.
So theres a countless series of experiences coming one after the other, one after the other, like that; but theres no coordination between them, no unified Whole. I dont even know if that is possible5at any rate, it will be for much later on.
So there you are.
0 1962-08-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What gives you that impression? Do you happen to have one of those criticizers in you? Sri Aurobindo says we always carry with us someone Who criticizes everything we do. He classifies the gentleman as an adverse force, one with an individual form. Yes, youre always saying it wont do, its no good.
Because I feel that things should be said with another kind of force. It seems like all these sentences could just as well be put one way as another, you understandits not inevitable at all. I could say things this way, but I could just as well say them differently.
--
I never thought this would have any consequences, but it did!1 Something probably needed to be exhausted. So physically speaking, yesterday was a pretty bad dayoh, only quite externally! In fact, the body was luminously conscious, profoundly happy and joyous, to the point where all suffering becomes negligibleyou dont notice it. And so it was a real opportunity for the Whole entourage to make progress. That helps.
Superficially, it [the bodys characteristic of attracting ordeals] could be called a sort of karma, but thats not what it is. Its actually like one of the pivotsnot a central one, but one of the pivots of the bodys invisible action, of its consciousness. And it is expressed by attracting certain circumstances. A Whole range of things having to do with the physical body has thus become very clear and precise to meand thats what the body was made for: to go full speed ahead.
Intellectually, I dont at all believe in taking others misfortunes upon oneself thats childish. But certain vibrations in the world must be accepted, exhausted and transformed. Inwardly, thats the work I have been doing all my lifeconsciously, gloriously. But now its on a purely physical level, independent of all the realities of other worlds: its in the body, you see. And this has given me a key, one of the necessary keys to the Work.
--
But I understand your question. You want to know if this has an effect on all identical vibratory modes in the world. In principle, yes. But the effects may not be immediately visible; in the first place, our field of observation is nothingmaterially, what do we know? Only our immediate surroundings thats nothing. In 1920, for example, I had an experience of that type, which resulted in a symbolic but terrestrial action. It was a vision (I dont remember enough details to make it interesting) where each nation was represented by a symbolic entity, and there was a certain type of horrorof terror, rather. A certain will of terror was trying to manifest in that gathering of all nations. And I was witness to the Whole thing. I remember it being a very conscious and rather long and detailed vision with a more intense reality than physical things have (it was in the subtle physical). And after it was over and I had done what needed to be done (I am not saying what because I dont remember all the details, and without accuracy it loses its value), when I came out of it I could say with TOTAL conviction: Terror has been overcome in the world. Of course, its not literally true, plenty of people still feel terror, but a certain type of terror was as if UNDERMINED at the foundations. What had already manifested kept on and is gradually being exhausted, but the terror that was trying to increase and dominate the life of nations was stopped cold.
I have had other similar experienceson Durgas day, for instance, when Sri Aurobindo was still here (you know, thats the day when Durga masters an asura; she doesnt kill him, she masters him). Well, each year one particular type of thing was undermined (and my experiences were never mental: the experience would suddenly come, and AFTERWARDS I would realize it was Durgas day), and each time I used to tell Sri Aurobindo, Looktoday this (or that) thing has been cut off at the roots. Thats how it works with the adverse forcesyes, like something being uprooted from the world. Whatever has already spread out keeps going and follows its karma, but the SOURCE is dried up. Thats also what happened (it was in 1904, I believe) when the Asura of Consciousness and Darkness made his surrender and was converted; he told me, I have millions and millions of emanations, and these will keep on living, but their source has now run dry.4 How much time will it take to exhaust it all? We cant say, but the source has dried up and that is something extremely important. In 1920, that terror was trying to spread all over the world and to become really catastrophic; and then in my inner vision I could see that a Whole movement had dried up at its source. This means that little by little, little by little, little by little the karma is being exhausted.
The same goes for these little physical movements. Things dont seem to be initiated any more, I mean theyre no longer being generated. But everything thats already present in the world has to be exhausted.
--
This seems to refer to the being Mother endowed with a body (in 1906, at Tlemcen), and Who went to set up the revolution in China.
***
0 1962-08-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I said it because its quite natural for people reading in the light of their own experience to get the feeling of an individual being Who is united with Thatit doesnt work that way with me, I cant do it! I cant. The other movement is natural, spontaneous, wonderful the delight of being and the delight of living. But as soon as the jiva comes, oh, I feel so hemmed in.2
***
0 1962-08-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Theres a fellow (hes neither young nor old) Who has been living for twenty-five straight years at one of the sources of the Ganges, in a small cave carved into the mountainsidea tiny, bare space, an earth floor and a tiger skin. He sits on the tiger skin stark naked, without a stitch, naked as a newborn babe, in the dead of winter as well as in summeroutside everything is covered with snow. He eats sometimes passers-by bring him fruit, which he dries in the sun, then puts into water and drinks. Thats all. He hasnt once left there in twenty-five years.
One of our children, V., a courageous boy, went up there all by himself. In winter its completely isolated, theres nothing nearby. It was May and still frightfully cold, it seems, snow still covered the ground. And the man was sitting there stark naked as though it were perfectly natural! He even asked the boy, Do you want to spend the night here? That was a bit too much!
--
A few days later, Mother remarked with a kind of admiration: "It's almost a miracle for such people to admit that someone is doing something entirely new! That's the great problem with those Who have attained some realization, they shut the door: 'Now we have realized what the Forefa thers said, and that's enough.' So to find a man Who knows nothing outwardly and Who FELT that we wanted to do something never done before ... I found that extremely interesting. It means he has an opening, an opening above, higher than the ordinary spiritual atmosphere."
***
0 1962-08-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Mon petit, we had a meditation here on the 15th, at ten oclock.2 At a quarter to ten, I was sitting here at the table in a total silence. And then I cant say Sri Aurobindo came, for he is always here, but he manifested in a special way. Concretely, in the subtle physical, he became so tall that, sitting cross-legged as they do here, he covered the Whole compoundeven extended a bit beyond it! He was literally sitting upon the compound; so to the extent that the people meditating were not closed, they were all inside him. He was sitting like that (not on their heads!), and I could feel (I was here, you see) the FRICTION of his presence in the subtle physicalan utterly physical friction! And I saw him (as you well know, I am not shut up in here [the body]), I saw him sitting there, very tall and perfectly proportioned; and then he started gently, gently descendingthis descent is what caused the frictiongently, very gently, so as not to give people a shock. Then he settled there and stayed for a little more than half an hour, a few minutes more, like that, absolutely still, but fully concentrated on all the people they were inside him.
I was sitting here smiling, almost almost laughing, really; you could feel him like that everywhere (Mother touches her Whole body), everywhere. And with such peace! Such peace, such force, such power. And a sense of eternity, immensity, and absoluteness. A sense of absoluteness, as if all were fulfilled, so to speak, and one lived in Eternity.
It was compelling. One had to be just plain dense not to feel it.
0 1962-08-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And at each step, its as though you had to take great care that nothing gets thrown off balance. The new combinations of vibrations, especially, are difficult for the body it must be very, very quiet, well under control, very peaceful, or else it panics. Because its used to vibrations Whose effects follow a regular pattern, so if the pattern changes theres a kind of frightened jolt. That must be avoided, the body has to be very gently kept under control.
What the mind thinks, what it expects to see, looks so childish in comparison, like yes, like theatrics, really. Its the difference between some grand extravaganza and the very modest life of each minute. Exactly that.
--
As for those Who want to go quickly, if they try going quickly in this realm, theyll be thrown off balance.
You cant go quickly.
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the vibration was there, you see, high above and all around the earth, very powerful (it was all around the earth) and very strong, it seemed to be coming from other parts of the universe and trying to enter the earths atmosphere to help it participate in those new combinations. And it all seemed like childishness to me the Whole universe seemed to be living in childishness. There was something so tranquil hereso tranquil, so calm and unhurried, not interested in showing anything off, but capable of living in an eternity of quiet effort and progress. It was here, immobile, watching all these things. Finally (the spectacle lasted all evening) when I lay down in bed for the night, I said to the Lord, I dont need diversions, I dont need to see encouraging things I only want to work calmly, quietly, IN You. You, You are the worker; You are here and You alone exist. You are the realizer. Then all grew silent, still, motionlessand the excitement waned.
So you see, theres excitement in the universe too, if youre not careful! But my impression is that it simply complicates thingsit clouds the issue, you know, it complicates things. Then you have to wait for the bubbles to subside before you can calmly set off again on your way towards the goal.
--
Uninterrupted, with one link the link of supreme Eternity. But the sense of consequences is false, it already implies a lowering of consciousness. So for meeven physically, in the midst of this Whole hodgepodge of confusion, ignorance and stupidityit all translates into: I do things, and the results are none of my business. Thats how its expressed here in the body.
Its a kind of liberation I dont mean from worry or preoccupation, theres no question of that but from the very IDEA of a consequence: its this way because thats the way it is; it has to be this way, so it is. Thats all. And at each second its this way because it has to be, and so it is. And That repeats itself eternally, and it is this eternal Pulsation which is expressed in time by those gusts I feel this very strongly, very strongly. Its a constant, spontaneous and very natural experience for me. The idea of something behind or ahead in time and so on is a Truth changing from immutable Eternity into Eternity of manifestation. And it changes like this (Mother makes a pulsating gesture), exactly like gustspuff, puff, puff.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats the first thing I told Sri Aurobindo: This was the resolution made by my psychic being (my psychic being was in a certain person I know Who). And when I left, it declared categorically: I want NO MORE of this!
The rest doesnt matter much to me, it didnt leave such an acute impression.
--
(Then Satprem reads a passage relating to the subtle physical and exteriorization; among other things, he cites the experience of D., Who, when he exteriorized for the first time, was unable to get back into his body because he tried to reenter through the legs! Here is the story:)
I was lying on my chaise longue in concentration when all at once I found myself in my friend Zs house. He and several others were playing music. I could see everything very clearly, even more clearly than in the physical, and I moved around very quickly, unimpeded. I stayed there watching for a while, and even tried to attract their attention, but they were unaware of me. Then suddenly something pulled me, a sort of instinct: I must go back. I felt pain in my throat. I remember that to get out of their room, which was all closed except for one small opening high up, my form seemed to vaporize (because I still had a form, though unlike our material onemore luminous, less opaque), and I went out like smoke through the open window. Then I found myself back in my room, next to my body, and I saw that my head was twisted and rigid against the cushion, and I was having trouble breathing. I wanted to get into my body: impossible. So I became afraid. I entered through the legs, and when I reached the knees I seemed to bounce back out; two, three times like that: the consciousness rose and then bounced back out like a spring. If I could only tip over this stool, I thought (there was a small stool under my feet), the noise would wake me up! But nothing doing. And I was breathing more and more heavily. I was terribly afraid. Suddenly I remembered Mother and cried out, Mother! Mother! and found myself back in my body, awake, with a stiff neck.
--
You must go out through here (the heart)you can go out through the top of the head, but its more difficult. You must leave through the heart and return the same way. Its quite natural; its the first thing you learn when you want to exteriorize. The Whole consciousness has to be concentrated here (the heart), and thats where you go out. And you must reenter the same way and maintain the link.
Its interesting though, very interesting.
--
The other things, exteriorization and so forth, are innate, just as some people are born artists or painters or aviators. Its one of Natures special combinations. Ive known some downright stupid girls Who could exteriorize remarkably well and be fully conscious of their experiences in the subtle physical or the mind or the material vital (when one is undeveloped its more often in the material vital than the subtle physical). And they would tell you all about what they saw. But incapable of yoga.
Natures fancies, I tell you.
--
For a long, long time, that was also the one thing I felt was worth living forConsciousness. When I met Thon and came to understand the mechanism, I also understood why I wasnt conscious at a certain level. I think Ive told you how I spent ten months one year working to connect two layerstwo layers of consciousness; the contact wasnt established and so I couldnt have the spontaneous experience of a Whole spectrum of things. Madame Thon told me, Its because theres an undeveloped layer between this part and that part. I was very conscious of all the gradations: Thon had explained it all in the simplest terms, so you didnt need to be, as I said, a genius to understand. He had made a quadruple division, and each of them was divided into four, and then again into four, making innumerable divisions of the being; but with that mental simplification you could make in-depth psychological studies of your own being. And so by observation and elimination I eventually discovered that between this and that (gesture indicating two levels of Mothers consciousness), there was an undeveloped layerit wasnt conscious. So I worked for ten months on nothing but that: absolutely no results. I didnt care, I kept right on, telling myself, Well, it may take me fifty years to get anywhere, Who knows. And then I left for the country (I was living in Paris at the time). I lay down on the grass, and all at once, with the contact of earth and grass, poof! There was a sort of inner explosion the link was established, and full consciousness came, along with all the ensuing experiences. Well, I said to myself, it was worth all the trouble!
And I am sure thats how the work is done, slowly, imperceptibly, like a chick being formed in the egg: you see the shell, you see only the shell, you dont know whats inside, whether its just an egg or a chick (normally, I meanof course, you could see through with special instruments) and then the beak goes peck-peck! And then cheep! Out comes the chick, just like that. Its the same thing exactly for the contact with the psychic being. For months on end, sometimes years, you may be sitting before a closed door, push, push, pushing, and feeling, feeling the pressure (it hurts!), and theres nothing, no results. Then all at once, you dont know why or how, you sit down and poof! Everything bursts wide open, everything is ready, everything is doneits over, you emerge into a full psychic consciousness and become intimate with your psychic being. Then everything changeseverything changesyour life completely changes, its a total reversal of your Whole existence.
In the end, its best not to worry, not to get agitated or depressed (thats the worst of all), not to get worked up or impatient or disgustedjust be calm and say, It will come when it comes, but with an unyielding stubbornness. Do what you feel has to be done, and keep on with it, keep on even if it seems utterly futile.
0 1962-09-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It doesnt touch me because that Whole realm has been completely set in order, but it does touch the atmosphere and puts me in contact with things I usually dont deal with. And as its a difficult time for the body now. As I told you in our last conversations, the physical is being penetrated by the subtle physical.
The body obviously doesnt need any more difficulties than it already has.
--
And this experience comes with examples just as concrete and as utterly banal as can be. Theres no room for imagination or enthusiasm they are details of the utmost banality. For example (its only ONE example), this sudden shift of consciousness takes place (something imperceptible, you cant perceive it, for if you had time to perceive it, I suppose it wouldnt happen; it isnt objectified), and you feel youre going to faint, all the blood rushes from the head to the feet and: Whoops! But if the consciousness is caught IN TIME, it doesnt happen; and if its not caught in time, it does.
This would tend to show. I dont know if we can generalize or if this is just one special case being worked out (I cant say), but theres a very distinct impression that what ordinary human consciousness perceives as death might simply be that the consciousness hasnt been brought back to its true position fast enough.
--
Outwardly, of course, these troubles (these apparent troubles) upset people, especially the doctor! Ive explained to him that it was all yoga and transformation, and he shouldnt worry, but evidently its upsetting to ordinary eyes. One fact in particular is bewildering to ordinary vision: I am very, very regularly losing weight. Its already down to a ridiculous figure I weigh only 85 pounds! With my height and bone structure, my normal weight should be 130 pounds; when I was twenty-five I weighed 130 or 135. Now I am down to only 85, and its going down quite regularly. I understand how disturbing this might be for people Who see things in the ordinary way! I dont eat much (not a little, not a lot, just average), and I dont seem to benefit from what I eat thats how it looks on the surface. And then there are these strange phenomena; I dont usually talk about them (youre the only one I have explained them to, nobody else), I dont talk about them, but from time to time I appear to I must appear to be fainting. And not in the usual way, you know, thats the thing! Nothing happens in the usual way, so its very upsetting! (Mother laughs) The Energy is tremendous, more tremendous than it has ever been; and there is practically no physical strength. I can act, but only if I bring in the Energy: the least physical act demands the Energy. I think the body is completely flimsy; it seems sometimes I touch it to see if its still if its hard or if its soft!
(silence)
--
Little by little, what was bound to happen has happened: you have a relationship with an X Who isnt the real X, but your OWN formation of X (I have already told you this), an ideal X youve set up inside yourself. Well, youd better stop associating your ideal with X, because they dont match!
But how should I act outwardly, what should I do?
--
Dont let this visit ruffle you. Essentially, his approach has always seemed peripheral to me, just one part of an immense Whole. It represents ONE aspect of the quest for the Divine on earth,2 and it is part of an entire line, like all the sannyasins, all the saddhus, and so on. X happens to have come closer because he has worshipped the Goddess of Love so much, the Shaktis aspect of Love, and that naturally led him here, brought him close, but. I see it as part of a Whole worldamong many other things. You know, theres that festival celebrated every ten years, I think, when all the saddhus go to ba the in the Ganges3; Ive seen all the photosits painful. Its its painful. It is no more beautiful or harmonious than a stampeding mob in a revolution. Its there is no special grace.
Now, do you remember the story of that man Who has been living at the source of the Ganges for twenty-five years? Here he is (Mother shows his photo). He was in his cave and V. said to him, Id like to take your picture. All right, he answered, and came out and sat down in the snowstark naked.
(Mother looks at the photo) There is something in his forehead, eyes and nose (why the nose?) thats very similar in all Who have experienced the inner contact.
Hes more like an example of what human beings can achieve: hes a forerunner more than a worker. He isnt a creative force on earth: hes an example.
--
Theres another man Whose disciples say has been living for a hundred and fifty-four years; Ill show you his photo (Mother goes to look for the photo). D. goes to see him twice a month, and yesterday or the day before, he said to D., You know, the greatest miracle I know of is having been able to gather more than a thousand people together for a spiritual undertaking! (Mother laughs Wholeheartedly) Its funny! One thousand two hundred people is the Ashrams official figure. Having been able to draw together a group of more than one thousand two hundred people for a spiritual undertaking!
He said he would come here when I called for him; I sent him word that I wouldnt call himbecause I cant disturb such an old man and not even be able to see him!
0 1962-09-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So Ive said that if people want to read what I have written (of course I have written certain things in English, like Conversations with the Mother, which I later rewrote in Frenchnot exactly in the same way, but nearly; so thats all right, its written in English) but those Who want to read me, well, let them learn French, it wont do them any harm!
French gives a precision to thought like no other language.
0 1962-09-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont have far to go on my translation of The Synthesis of Yoga (its going very quickly), and I have found what Ill do next. It will be something like those notebooks [Prayers and Meditations]. I am going to take the Whole section of Savitri (to start with, Ill see later) from The Debate of Love and Death to the point where the Supreme Lord makes his prophecy about the earths future; its longseveral pages long. This is for my own satisfaction.
I am going to translate it line by line (not word by wordline by line), leaving a space between each line; and when Ive finished I will try to recapture it in French (gesture of pulling down from above).
--
Who house the mighty Mothers violent force,
Her vision turned to read the enigmaed world,
0 1962-09-22, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother makes this brief remark about someone Who practices traditional yoga and is constantly ill:)
Thats the essential failing of the old yogic system: things go quite nicely on the level where they practice yoga, but as soon as they descend, theyre worse than everyone else!
--
In the middle of the First World War, Sri Aurobindo noted with prophetic force: The defeat of Germany could not of itself kill the spirit then incarnate in Germany; it may well lead merely to a new incarnation of it, perhaps in some other race or empire, and the Whole battle would then have to be fought over again. So long as the old gods are alive, the breaking or depression of the body which they animate is a small matter, for they know well how to transmigrate. Germany overthrew the Napoleonic spirit in France in 1813 and broke the remnants of her European leadership in 1870; the same Germany became the incarnation of that which it had overthrown. The phenomenon is easily capable of renewal on a more formidable scale.2 Today we are finding that the old gods know how to transmigrate. Gandhi himself, seeing all those years of nonviolence culminate in the terrible violence that marked Indias partition in 1947, ruefully observed shortly before his death: The attitude of violence which we have secretly harboured now recoils on us, and makes us fly at each others throats when the question of distribution of power arises. Now that the burden of subjection is lifted, all the forces of evil have come to the surface. For neither nonviolence nor violence touch upon the root of Evil.
Ahimsa: nonviolence.
0 1962-09-26, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am unfamiliar with the purely Hindu traditions, but the gods are the beings the Vedas and people of Vedic times were in touch wi that least I think so. I learned what I know about the gods before coming here, through the other tradition, the Chaldean. But Thon used to say that this tradition and the Vedic (which he knew well) were outgrowths of a more ancient tradition common to both. The story goes, according to him, that the first Emanations, Who were perfectly independent, separated themselves from the Supreme in their action, creating all the disorder thats what caused the creations disorder. Afterwards the gods were emanated, to repair the evil that had been wrought and to organize the world according to the supreme Will. Of course, this is a childlike way of putting it, but its comprehensible. So all these gods work in harmony and order. Thats what the ancient tradition says.
As far as Ive understood, the Indian tradition has embraced everything that came from the first Emanations, since all the gods of destruction, of unconsciousness and of suffering are included in its pantheon.
--
This region just overlooks the earth and the mind (including the very highest mind). But evolution I mean TERRESTRIAL evolution, with its particular rhythm which is more condensed, more concentrated and, you could say, more focused than universal evolution as a Wholethis terrestrial evolution has, with the human species, created a kind of higher intellectuality capable of passing through the overmental region, the region of the gods, and reaching a higher Principle directly.
But this overmental region, this region of the gods with the power to govern the universe and, PARTIALLY, the earth, does have its own reality. You can come into contact with it and use it; the Vedic forefa thers used it, occultists use it, even Tantrics use it. But theres another path which, distrusting the gods, bypasses them through a kind of intellectual asceticism, as it were, wary of forms, of images, and differing expressions, which rises straight as an arrow, proud and pure, towards the supramental Light. That is a living experience.
Sri Aurobindo preached the integral yoga which includes everything, so one can have all the experiences. Indeed, the universe was clearly created as a field of experience. Some people prefer the short, straight and narrow paths thats their business. Others like to dawdle along the wayand thats their business! And some are drawn to have all the experiences, and thus they often wander for a long time through the overmental world. And of course, the vast majority of those Who have RELIGIOUS aspirations are thus put in touch with various deities, where they stopits enough for them.
But everything Ive just said is only one tiny part of the Whole story.
Actually, this domain of the gods belongs to our side, although on a godlike scale: with the gods power, their possibilities, their consciousness, their freedom; and their immortality, too. In other words, a godlike life I think most human beings would be more than satisfied with it!
--
Basically, its part of the old path, a consequence of all that has happened, of the Whole universal formation as we know it. People Who believe in essential Evil would say its a consequence of the accident of creation. But is it an accident? I have my doubts. It has yet to be revealed. And we wont know until until its over.
I am speaking in riddles, but what else can I do!
0 1962-10-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its like a rain of truth falling, and anyone Who can catch even a drop of it receives a revelation. But unless they themselves advance at a fantastic pace, the Lord and His rain of truth will already be far, far away, and theyll have to run very fast to catch up!
This is an image I have always seen.
--
It is the higher Knowledge, Truth expressing itself, what he calls the true knowledge; and that knowledge transforms the Whole creation. But He seems to let it rain down constantly, you see, and if you dont hurry up (laughing), you get left behind!
But have you never felt a sort of dazzling flash in your head? And then: Aha! Thats it! Sometimes its something that was known intellectually, but it was drab and lifeless; and then all at once it comes as a tremendous power, organizing everything in the consciousness around that Lightit doesnt last very long. Sometimes it lasts a few hours, sometimes a few days, but never longer, unless one is very slow in ones movement. And meanwhile, you know (laughing), the Source of Truth is moving on and on and on.
--
But this doesnt keep me from seeing physicallyalthough, yes, it does at times make me unsure of Whos in front of me, because I see a vibration that is sometimes very similar, almost identical, in three or four people ( Who arent all necessarily present, but anyway). So theres a slight external difference theres a very great external difference in the way the form looks, of course, but in the combination of vibrations theres only a slight external difference. And so sometimes I am not sure, I dont know whether its this person or that one; thats why I often ask, Whos there? Its not that I dont see anything, but I dont see in the same way.
In a way, I think I see better. But in a particular way. If, for instance, I have to thread a needle (I have experimented with this kind of thing), well, if I try to thread the needle while looking at it, its literally impossible. But sometimes (when I am in a certain attitude), if I have to thread a needle, it threads itself I have nothing to do with it: I hold the needle, I hold the thread, and thats that.
0 1962-10-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just try for a moment (laughing), try and imagine youre the Divine! Everything is in you; you simply play at bringing it all out in a certain order. But for you, in your consciousness, its all there simultaneously: there is no time, neither past, future, nor presentits all there together, every possible combination. Hes just playing at bringing out one thing and then another; but the poor devils down below see only a small part of the Whole (about as much as this) and say, Heres an error! How is it an error? Simply because what they see is only a small part.
Its clear, isnt it? Its easy to understand. The notion of error belongs to time and space.
--
He has put Himself in the role of spectator and Hes watching Himself. And to watch Himself, He has to accept the notion of time and spaceo therwise He cant watch Himself! And immediately the Whole comedy begins. But its a comedy and nothing more!
And were the puppets, eh! Thats why we take it so seriously. But as soon as we stop being puppets, we realize its a comedy.
--
Yes, burned. Or shut up in a box without air and lightwhile FULLY CONSCIOUS. And just because they can no longer express themselves, people say they are dead. They dont waste any time declaring them dead! But they are conscious. They are conscious. Imagine someone Who can no longer speak or moveaccording to human laws, he is dead. He is dead but he is conscious. He is conscious, so he sees the people around him: some of them are weeping, some of them are if hes a bit clairvoyant, he also sees that some of them are rejoicing. And then he sees himself put into a box, sees the lid nailed down, shutting him in: Ah, now its all over, theyre going to cover me with earth! Or hes taken over there [to the cremation ground], and then its fire in the mouthFULLY conscious.
I have lived this in recent days. I have seen it. Last night or the night before, I spent at least two hours in a world the subtle physical worldwhere the living mingle with the dead with no sense of difference, it makes absolutely no difference there. For instance, when Mridu1 was in her body I used to see her at night maybe once a year (maybe not even that much). For years she was utterly nonexistent in my consciousness but since she left her body, I see her almost every night! There she is, just as she was, you know (rotund gesture), but no longer troubled, thats all. No longer troubled. And there were both living and what we call the living and the deadthey were both there together, eating together, moving around together, having fun together; and all in a lovely, tranquil lightpleasant, very pleasant. There! I thought, and humans have drawn a sharp line, saying, Now hes dead! Dead! And what really takes the cake is the way they treat the body like an unconscious object, and its still conscious!
Its treated like an object: Now then! Lets get rid of this just as quickly as we can: its a nuisance and it gets in the way. And even those Who feel the most sorrow dont want to see it; its too painful for them.
(silence)
--
So you see, the only one Whos not worried is the one watching the show, because he knows everything thats going to happen. He has an absolute knowledge of everything, everything that is happening, has happened or will happen for him, its all ONE presence. And then there are the actors, the poor actors, Who dont even know their roles very well. They worry and fret because theyre being made to play something and they dont know what it is. Ive just had a very strong sense of this: were all playing parts in the comedy, but we dont know what the comedy is, nor where its going, where its coming from, nor what its all about. We just barely know (and poorly, at that) what were supposed to do at a given moment. And knowing it so poorly, we worry about it. But when you know everything, you cant worry any moreyou smile. He must be having great fun, but for us. And yet we are given the FULL POWER to have just as much fun as He does.
We just dont take the trouble to do it.
--
Theres a person I wont name Who has read Sri Aurobindos books and thought he understood them. He has been following a yogic discipline (anyway, he thought he was doing yoga) and he pulled down the Force. The Force responded (Mother laughs). He wound up with a headache! He got frightened and wrote to me in these exact words: This Force is the Lords Force (which is true, quite true), and it has turned into fear. So (Mother laughs) fear is the Lords principal perversion. There you have it. He read in books that the Lord is behind everything, that there is nothing that isnt the Lord; so its the Lord Who has become perverted in His manifestation, naturally. The Force of the Lord came to help him and was changed into fear, so the Lords principal perversion is fear!
If you read that, youd say he was going off his rocker.
--
This is plainly what he meant: Error is one of the innumerable, infinite possibilities (infinite means that absolutely nothing is outside the possibility of being). So where is there room for error in this? Its WE Who call it error, its totally arbitrary. Thats an error, we say but in relation to what? To our judgment of what is true, yes, but certainly not in relation to the Lords judgment, since it is part of Him!
Few people can bear this widening of understanding.
--
He takes anything, even what we call a quite ordinary intelligence, and then He simply shows you how to put that intelligence aside, lay it to rest: There now, keep still, dont stir, dont bother me; I dont need you. And then a door opensyou dont even feel you have to open it; its wide open, and youre led through to the other side. Its Someone else Who does all this, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible.
Oh, all this frightful toil, this effort of the mind to understand! Struggling, giving itself headachesphew! Absolutely useless, absolutely useless. It leads nowhere, except to more confusion.
You find yourself facing a so-called problem: What am I to say? What am I to do? How should I act? There is nothing to do! Nothing but to say to the Lord, You see, heres the situation. Thats all. And then keep very still. And spontaneously, without thinking about it, without reflecting, without calculating, without doing anything, anything whatsoever, without the slightest effort you do what must be done. But its the Lord Who does it, its no longer you. He does it, He arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words in your mouth or under your penHe does it all, all, all, all, and you have nothing more to do, nothing but let yourself live in bliss.
I am beginning to be convinced that people dont really want it.
--
And I am not talking about people with no intelligence, but about intelligent people, people Who are trying. Theres still a sort of conviction in them somewhere, even in those Who know that were living in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that theres a Lord Who is all truth. Well, they reason that precisely because He is all truth, He wont understand (Mother laughs). He wont understand our falsehood, I have to deal with it on my own. This is a very predominant, very widespread attitude.
One sometimes even goes to a great deal of trouble to explain things to Him: Its this way, You see, thats how it is. And when youre finished, you realize. Oh, that reminds me of an experience I had one night two years ago. It was the first time the Supermind entered the cells of my body, and it had risen up to the brain. So the brain found itself in the presence of something (laughing) considerably more powerful than it was used to receiving! And, like the idiot it is, it got worried. As for me (gesture above or beyond), I saw it all, I saw that the brain was getting worried, so I tried to tell it what a nitwit it was and to just keep still. It did keep still, but you know, it was really seething away in there, as if it were about to explode. So I said, All right now, lets go see Sri Aurobindo and ask him what to do. Immediately everything became utterly calm and I woke up in Sri Aurobindos house in the subtle physicala very material sensation, with everything quite concrete. So I arrived, or rather not I but the body-consciousness arrived2 and started explaining to Sri Aurobindo what had happenedit was very excited, talking and talking. The response was a sort of inscrutable smile and then nothing. He simply looked. An inscrutable smilenot a word. All the excitement died away. A face out of eternity. The excitement died away. Then it was time for Sri Aurobindos lunch (people eat therein another way). So as not to disturb him, I went into the next room. He came in after some time and stood before me (Imy physical being, that is, my physical consciousness had had time to calm down). I knelt down and took his hand (a MUCH clearer sensation than anything physical, mon petit!); I kissed his hand. He simply said, Oh! This is better. (Mother laughs.)
--
So youre the one Who has to do the work. You can condense a littlea sentence here, a sentence there.
Well, petit.
0 1962-10-16, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I know this because when the body became like thatit was more than three-quarters dead1and people were taking care of me, doing everything for me, I was fully conscious, FULLY, but I couldnt. I was like a dead person. And it wasnt that I couldnt move, but I couldnt manifest anything I didnt want to! I was in a state of total bliss, and couldnt have cared less about what was going to happen. Well, thats what I think must happen to those Who Who die in a state of graceits true, some people die well and others dont. It all depends on ones state of consciousness.
If at death you withdraw from physical circumstances, from ordinary physical consciousness, and unite with the great universal Force, or the divine Presence, then all these little things. Its not that youre not conscious of themyou are very conscious: conscious of what others are doing, conscious of everything, but its not important.
But for those Who are attached to people and things when they die, it must be a hellish torment.
Hellish.
--
For people Who died.
***
0 1962-10-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes. It depends on the case, on the country, on all kinds of things. There are people in Europe Who ask to be burned because theyre afraid of being buried alive. Here, when people are convinced that a person is conscious, hes buried instead of burned.
Actually, each case is entirely individual.
--
I saw his hand, his arm I definitely recognized Who it was. Then he set it down there: this is for you.
Its going to go home with you! (Mother laughs and laughs.)
--- Overview of noun who
The noun who has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
1. World Health Organization, WHO ::: (a United Nations agency to coordinate international health activities and to help governments improve health services)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun who
1 sense of who
Sense 1
World Health Organization, WHO
=> United Nations agency, UN agency
=> administrative unit, administrative body
=> unit, social unit
=> organization, organisation
=> social group
=> group, grouping
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun who
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun who
1 sense of who
Sense 1
World Health Organization, WHO
=> United Nations agency, UN agency
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun who
1 sense of who
Sense 1
World Health Organization, WHO
-> United Nations agency, UN agency
=> United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF
=> Food and Agriculture Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO
=> General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT
=> International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA
=> International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank, IBRD
=> International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO
=> International Development Association, IDA
=> International Finance Corporation, IFC
=> International Labor Organization, International Labour Organization, ILO
=> International Maritime Organization, IMO
=> International Monetary Fund, IMF
=> United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO
=> United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, DCCP
=> United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Centre for International Crime Prevention
=> World Health Organization, WHO
=> World Meteorological Organization, WMO
--- Grep of noun who
who
whodunit
whole
whole-word method
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whole gale
whole kit
whole kit and boodle
whole kit and caboodle
whole life insurance
whole meal bread
whole meal flour
whole milk
whole name
whole note
whole number
whole rest
whole shebang
whole snipe
whole step
whole to part relation
whole tone
whole wheat bread
whole wheat flour
whole works
wholeheartedness
wholeness
wholesale
wholesale house
wholesale price index
wholesaler
wholesomeness
whoop
whoopee
whooper
whooper swan
whooping cough
whooping crane
whoosh
whopper
whore
whoredom
whorehouse
whoremaster
whoremonger
whoreson
whorl
whorled aster
whorled caraway
whorled loosestrife
whorled milkweed
whorlywort
whortleberry